


give it just a little time

by gay_hamiltrashhh



Category: Glee
Genre: M/M, Multi
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-09
Updated: 2021-02-09
Packaged: 2021-03-15 10:34:04
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 16
Words: 24,208
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29312661
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/gay_hamiltrashhh/pseuds/gay_hamiltrashhh
Summary: ➳ || klaine fanfic //new kid blaine anderson transfers to mckinley!him and kurt get off on the wrong foot as blaine quickly charms the school with his suave confidence but he's determined to win kurt over~fluff/angst
Relationships: Blaine Anderson & Kurt Hummel, Blaine Anderson/Kurt Hummel, Blaine Anderson/Sebastian Smythe, Mike Chang/Tina Cohen-Chang, Rachel Berry/Finn Hudson, Sam Evans/Mercedes Jones
Kudos: 7





	1. New Kid in Town

**Author's Note:**

> follow my wattpad @gay_hamiltrashhh ! mwah <3

"Have you met him yet?"

"Did you see his hair?"

"Did you see his bowtie?"

"Is it true he plays for the other team?"

"He's so hot."

Kurt rolled his eyes as he seated himself next to Mercedes, Rachel and Finn at their usual table in the cafeteria. Ever since the new kid and his bowties had transferred to McKinley, it was like the school had been brainwashed with one mission in mind: worshipping Blaine Anderson.

... And he had only transferred yesterday.

Yeah, sure, he was good-looking, but the guy put way too much gel in his hair. Kurt had seen him in the halls between classes and in the cafeteria but it wasn't like they had talked. He didn't plan on introducing himself, either—he didn't really see the point in it. He was happy hanging out with his Glee Club friends.

It was Kurt's junior year, meaning he had fought to get to the top of the high school social standing for two full years already and had been painfully unsuccessful, and then suddenly this Blaine guy comes in and scales the McKinley food chain like it's nothing. He wondered how it could be so easy for some people. He swallowed the lump of jealousy building in his throat and shook himself out of his trance. It wasn't his place to have an opinion; if Blaine minded his business he would mind his. Simple as that.

He hadn't realized that the whole time he had been having his internal monologue, he'd been absentmindedly staring in Blaine's direction until Finn cleared his throat and Mercedes and Rachel began to giggle in spite of themselves.

"Got your eye on something, Kurt?" Mercedes asked, holding back laughter.

He felt the blood rush to his cheeks as he snapped his head back to his seatmates. "No!" His voice came out squeakier than usual as he shook his head trying to regain his composure. "Blaine? He's totally pretentious." And he did kind of think that.

"Alriiight," Mercedes said disbelievingly, turning back to her lunch.

***

The next day, Kurt had his arms full of sheet music and was texting Rachel with his other hand as he made his way to the choir room when suddenly he collided with someone, sending the papers flying everywhere. He mentally cursed himself and then Rachel for her texts that could never wait. And then cursed himself again when he looked up at who he had run into. "Oh!"

"Ohmygod, I'm so sorry! Are you okay? Let me pick these up for you." 

Kurt watched Blaine scramble to gather the papers he had dropped, rubbing his temples before crouching down to join the effort. "No, it's fine, thanks. It's my fault for texting while walking."

"A dangerous habit," Blaine laughed as he straightened up and handed him the papers. "My name's Blaine, by the way. I'm new here."

"Yeah, you've been the talk of the school ever since you showed up... two days ago." He shook his head as if to clear it before continuing. "I'm Kurt. Um, if you don't mind me asking, why are you here? It's after school. I'm just here for Glee."

"Oh, me too! I was in a show choir in my last school and New Directions seemed cool, so I auditioned yesterday."

Kurt fought back his shock, swallowing. "—Oh! Okay. Um, I guess we should go in, then."

"Yeah, I guess so." Blaine held his gaze for a second. "Well, hey, I hope we get to sing together sometime." With that, he nodded and disappeared inside, leaving a speechless Kurt out in the hall.

_Bitch better not take my solo._


	2. Forget You

• a week later •

Kurt entered the auditorium dramatically, radiating silent anger, taking a seat as far away from Blaine as he could.

"Kurt, you're 20 minutes late," Mr. Schuester said, raising his eyebrows when Kurt didn't answer, just stared ahead in silence.

He barely heard him. The words that had come from Mr. Schue's mouth on Monday were still ringing in his head.

_I've decided to give your solo to Blaine._

Kurt dug his hands into the edge of his chair.

_I've decided to give your solo to Blaine._

Further. 

His knuckles were white. But at least he could feel the pain. Everything else felt blank. His very first solo. At Regionals, no less. Stolen from him. His chance to shine, finally. Blaine had won over nearly everything at this school. _Why not just steal Mercedes and all my friends away from me too?_ He probably could, everyone seemed to love him.

_I just think he's a better fit for this time around._

A better fit. A better fit for this school in a week than Kurt has ever been. Kurt bit his lip—he had promised himself he wouldn't get resentful. So many thoughts were swirling around his head that he barely even noticed when Blaine changed seats to be next to him at the end of rehearsal. Of course, all Kurt had done the whole time was sit and hum along absentmindedly, since Mr. Schuester obviously didn't think much more of him.

"Hey, Kurt. I was thinking maybe we could rehearse together sometime? I heard you're really good at the song we're doing... Got to Get You Into My Life. You know, by the Beatles?" Blaine offered, hopeful puppy expression across his face.

"I'm sorry, I don't think that's a very good idea," Kurt offered coldly, getting up and walking out without another look behind him.

It continued like that for a little more than a week, Blaine stupidly trying to reconnect with Kurt at every turn and Kurt shooting him down or just plain ignoring his solo thief. He put less and less effort in at each rehearsal but no one really seemed to notice.

The next week, McKinley's halls emptied out as Kurt fixed his hair in the mirror on his locker in preparation for rehearsal.

"You know, those pants don't make you look good, they just made you look gay."

Kurt froze, squeezing his eyes shut before turning around and attempting to shoulder past Karofsky and the rest of his buddies. No such luck. Dave thrust his arm out to catch him and shoved him forward by his collar. "Hey, I'm talking to you. Did you not hear me? I guess it makes sense you wouldn't understand me since I don't speak Fag."

Kurt turned. "You know, those football jackets don't make you look cool, they just make you look like you don't have a high enough IQ to dress yourself in the morning. Or does your mom still do that for you?"

"Oh really? And where's your mommy, Hummel? Knowing you, the way she died was probably killing herself so she could stop having to look at your ladyface." His buddies sniggered.

Kurt's eyes stung with tears but he bit them back, digging his nails into his palms. "You don't know me," he said hoarsely. The bullies began to close in on him. "What do you want?"

"Nothing in particular, my buddies and I just think it's been _way_ too long since we had a good old fashioned beat up. Isn't that right?"

The bullies cracked their knuckles as they backed him into the corner and pinned him against the locker.

***

Blaine began to worry when rehearsal had been going on for half an hour and Kurt still wasn't there. He had made a habit of being slightly more careless and showing up a little late ever since Blaine had gotten the solo, but he had never taken it this far.

... And Blaine didn't think he was _quite_ that dramatic.

He didn't have his number, and no one else seemed very bothered about the absence, so he excused himself by telling Mr. Schue he needed to use the bathroom and ran out of the auditorium to find Kurt.

The halls were desolate, though he noticed Kurt's locker was still open, which he found odd. He couldn't help smiling at the Wicked playbill taped to the inside and gently pushed the door closed, looking around for any sign of Kurt.

He peeked through the window of the closest classroom—it was empty—before heading to check the bathroom. A chill ran down his spine as he heard crying from one of the stalls in the back.

"Kurt? Kurt, is that you?" Blaine ran to the source of the sound to see Kurt on the sitting on the cold bathroom floor, shaking with sobs, his hand clutched to his chest. Blood was dripping from his nose and there was a gash above his eyebrow.

"Oh, God, oh no." In that moment he didn't care whether or not Kurt had been giving him the silent treatment, he just rushed to his side and pulled him in close, Kurt not rejecting the embrace. He could feel the tears and messy sobs on his shoulder and the uneven breathing and the way Kurt's hands dug into his back, clutching him for dear life, but he didn't care. He just held him. 

He couldn't help noticing how well they fit together, linked like puzzle pieces, like their arms were meant to hold each other. It felt so right, and familiar—comforting, even.

They stayed like that for a while until gradually Kurt's sobs subsided and he began to breathe in and out normally, his hold around Blaine loosening as he drew back from the embrace with his head hung low. "Sorry," he breathed, wiping his nose on his sleeve, yet to meet Blaine's gaze.

"Don't be." Blaine shook his head, looking at Kurt with such concern it nearly made him crumble. He got up to get him a paper towel. "Here."

"Thank you." Kurt wiped his tears and dabbed the blood from his face with a quick, dry laugh. "I'm sorry I've been a jerk to you this past week. I was wrong... and way too quick to judge you. You're... really genuine. And really sweet."

Blaine looked away with a small smile. "I'm glad you think so. But um, it's okay. Mr. Schue told me it was originally going to be you singing the solo at Regionals. I didn't know... I'm really sorry about that."

"Yeah... well, what are you gonna do about it," Kurt said with only a tinge of bitterness in his voice, as if this were something he was very used to. "It's better this way anyway. You'll do great, the judges will love you, it'll be a crowd-pleaser. You _are_ very talented, you know."

"I—Thank you," Blaine said in surprise. "Um, I don't know if this is a weird thing for me to ask, but... Do you think I could... get your number? I didn't have any way to contact you when you didn't come to rehearsal and I think it would be... good." His eyes flicked back and forth between Kurt and the floor nervously.

"Oh—yeah, yeah sure!" Blaine gave him his phone and watched as Kurt entered his number. "There."

Blaine couldn't wipe the dorky smile off his face for the life of him. "Thanks." He stood up, brushing off his pants and offering Kurt his hand. "Come on, we have to get you to the school nurse."

"No, no it's—"

"Kurt! I'm not leaving you alone until you're okay."

Kurt gave a reluctant sigh and took his hand. Blaine clutched it tightly and wouldn't let go until they got to the nurse's office, despite Kurt's half-hearted protests.

"Okay, I have to run back to rehearsal now before it's over, are you sure you're okay?"

Kurt laughed at his new friend's concern. "Yeah, yeah I am. Thank you. Go!"

Blaine pulled him in for a short hug before running off down the hall, Kurt watching him go. _This has been an interesting junior year,_ he thought to himself.And as long as he had good friends like Blaine by his side, he just might survive it.


	3. Lean on Me

At the end of first period, Kurt walked out of his Physics class to find Blaine waiting outside the door with coffees in his hand. They had been hanging out for a couple of weeks since "The Incident" and Kurt had realized just how nice a friend Blaine really was. He still felt kind of bad that he had ever doubted him, since he enjoyed his company so much now. They were always making faces at each other in class and leaving notes on the whiteboard for each other when their class periods didn't line up.

"Hey, I got you this," Blaine said, pushing the coffee into Kurt's hand.

Kurt locked eyes with him as they walked, taking a sip. "You know my coffee order?"

"Of course I do. By the way, you look cute today."

He nearly choked on his coffee. "Thanks, Blaine. I, um, think we have our next class together. English?"

Blaine looked unfazed by Kurt's nervous spluttering, as if he called his buddies cute all the time. _Maybe he does. Oh God, I'm overthinking this._ "Oh, fun! I'll—"

Whatever he was about to say was interrupted by a collective cold shock surging over them and what felt like being pierced by a thousand needles all at once, feeling the familiar miserable sensation of icy sugar water dripping down their clothes.

They had been slushied.

Kurt's ears were ringing, barely hearing Karofsky and his thugs walking off, doubling over in hysterical laughter. "Take that, fags!"

Slowly bringing his hands up to wipe the slushie out of his burning eyes, he steadied his breathing as the sight of a soaked Blaine hit him. "Oh God, Blaine, I'm sorry." He frantically brushed slushie off his frozen friend's shoulders. "I guess hanging out with me hasn't exactly helped you maintain your top social status."

Blaine didn't respond, his face still clearly painted with shock at his first time being the victim of a slushie attack. Kurt grabbed ahold of his shoulders and steered him into the boys' bathroom, starting the ritual he had done a million times before for himself and his other friends, sitting Blaine down in front of the sink and tipping his head back to wash the slushie off his face and out of his hair. 

***

"Thanks for doing this," Blaine mumbled embarrassedly. He had changed into one of Kurt's dress shirts that he had grabbed for him, since he always kept three different shirts in his locker for times like these.

"It's nothing I haven't done before," Kurt sighed to himself. "Anyway, I don't mind."

They sat in comfortable silence for a couple of minutes as Kurt washed the last bits of slushie out of Blaine's hair before clearing his throat. "Um, Blaine?"

"Yeah?"

"So, we rinsed the slushie out, but we also kind of washed all your hair gel out."

"Oh God, is it bad? It's horrible." Blaine sat up immediately to check the state of his curls in the mirror as Kurt stifled his laughter. The curly haired boy began to search for his hair gel but Kurt caught his arm.

"Hey, no, don't! I like the curls. They're cute."

Blaine looked down bashfully at the touch, meeting Kurt's eyes through the mirror. "You really think so?"

"I do."

***

The lunch lady was staring at Kurt expectantly as he patted down his pockets, dread slowly settling in on him as he came to the realization that... _oh, shit, he had forgotten his lunch money._

"Um, I'm so sorry, I think I forgot—"

"I'll pay for that," a familiar voice swooped in, suavely sliding the money across the counter. Kurt looked up with a smile at his curly-haired Blaine and mouthed _thank you._ He nodded and led the way to the Glee table where everyone was currently in the middle of a heated debate on whether or not Coldplay could be considered an alternative band.

"Woo, nice hair, Blaine!" Sam called from the opposite side of the table.

"Who is that guy...?" Brittany whispered in Santana's ear, genuinely confused. Santana just shook her head giggling and kissed her cheek—she was used to her girlfriend behaving like that.

"Yeah, um, went with a new look today after getting slushied,"—a wave of sympathetic sounds flowed from the group—"and you love the curls, so..." Blaine teased, turning to hold Kurt's gaze for just a moment too long as they sat down next to each other.

Kurt tried to hide his blush by focusing all his energy into seeming very interested in his lunch, feeling Santana's eyes preying on the pair of them. 

A moment passed.

... And then it came. 

"Oh, God, get a room. Seriously, are you two dating yet or at least fooling around or what? You've been making goo-goo eyes at each other for weeks and frankly, it's disgusting."

Kurt's head snapped up as he gaped at her. He was used to her comments being out of line, but _jeez._ "Santana! It's not like that. Blaine and I are just close friends—"

"With benefits," Santana whispered in Brittany's ear, making her giggle. Kurt ignored them.

"—and always will be just close friends. It's possible to be friends with someone of the same sex and sexuality and not sleep with them, you know."

She looked at him blankly—she didn't know. "Whatever. You're boring." She rolled her eyes and turned back to Brittany.

Blaine had been watching behind him with amusement at the exchange, but Kurt tried not to pay attention to him, or how Finn's eyes were flitting between the pair of them, or how hyper-aware he was of their thighs brushing together under the table, or the fact that on the other side, Mercedes and Rachel seemed to be taking bets on their relationship.

The truth was, Blaine was kind of flirty with everyone, and him and Kurt were just very close. At least, that's what he kept telling himself. He didn't want to take a risk messing up their friendship—it meant too much to him. And he couldn't bear it if his relationship affected his performances or caused drama in his friends' lives like Finn and Rachel's had. He was busy enough as it was, and they had to face the facts: a relationship between two theatre kids will always come with some drama. But anyway, Blaine wasn't interested in him like that. Right? Right. Even if he was... No. He wouldn't let himself think about it. _Just friends,_ he told himself firmly, as if trying to drill it into his brain. The urge to hold your friend's hand under the table was completely normal, right? ... He pushed the feeling aside.

 _Just friends._ _It's better this way anyway._ He had said that to Blaine about the solo... so why couldn't it apply to them too?

_Just friends._


	4. Hopelessly Devoted to You

"Hey Dad, Blaine's coming over!" Kurt shouted down the stairs, phone in hand.

**To: BlaineWarbler**

**_9:06pm_ **

**KurtMiddleton: SOS I FORGOT ABOUT THE HISTORY TEST TOMORROW SEND HELP**

**BlaineWarbler: never fear, nightbird is here to rescue you!**

**BlaineWarbler: what i meant is im on my way**

_Fingers crossed he doesn't show up in his Superhero Sidekicks Appreciation Club costume._

But you never know with Blaine.

Kurt tore back up to his room in a frenzy to get his books out ... and to fix his hair since Blaine was going to be there any minute. The weird fluttery feeling in his stomach was only due to his stress over the test... right?

He heard his dad answer a knock at the door and shuffled down the steps before he could interrogate his friend too much. Burt looked up at the footsteps. "Alright, you kids behave up there," he said, not too overly serious, as he flashed a glance between the two boys.

"Oh, no, I'm just here to help a friend study," Blaine laughed, shooting a smooth smile his way.

"Uh huh. Just keep the door open three inches, okay?"

_"Dad!"_

Blaine watched as the two seemed to have a silent conversation with just eye contact, ending with Kurt rolling his eyes and groaning as he took his friend's hand and dragged him up the stairs. He closed the bedroom door behind them.

"Sorry about that... my dad has had this thing with me and guys ever since I came out. It's like he's scared I'll have a crush on every boy I meet." Kurt and Blaine locked eyes for a moment, the curly-haired boy breaking it as he looked down and shuffled his feet with a short laugh.

"I—I don't mind, it's fine. More than fine, actually. You guys seem to have a nice relationship." He paused. "I'd be lying if I didn't say I was a little envious."

"Envious of _my_ overprotective dad? Do elaborate."

Blaine tilted his head before the words gushed out of his mouth—"Well, overprotective dad's better than deeply homophobic, alcoholic dad."

Kurt's mouth opened in an "o" as the realization dawned in his eyes and they quickly filled with sympathy. "Oh," he whispered hoarsely. "I'm sorry."

Instantly uncomfortable and regretting what he had said, he shook his head. "No, um, it's fine. I shouldn't have—it's not your problem. Sorry, um, we—we should study."

Kurt nodded, silently opening his books. "I'm on page 216." They didn't bring up the subject again, but whether it was intentional or not, Kurt ended up moving a little closer to him as the night went on. He found it was comforting just to feel his presence.

***

"The political ramifications of the Marshall Plan! Go!"

"Um—!" Kurt bust out in giggles. It was 2am and his hands were clutching his mussed hair, slowly blinking his dry, bloodshot eyes. They were both hopped up on coffee and sugar in a sorry attempt to stay up and it wasn't doing much to help besides making absolutely everything funny. "I don't know!!" he whisper-yelled, trying desperately to quell his uncontrollable giggling.

"Shh!" Blaine put a finger to Kurt's lips, holding back laughter, and then back to the book, standing up dramatically and holding the book up as if it were a skull in a Shakespearean play. "When was the Marshall Plan enacted?" he presented the question in an over-the-top accent which just made Kurt double over laughing even harder. "Kurt, this is serious!"

He _maybe_ would have believed him if Blaine hadn't burst out laughing two seconds later, collapsing on the floor with Kurt as they tried to control themselves. Kurt shh'ed him frantically, wiping the tears from his eyes, since he didn't want to wake up his dad.

"We should take a break," Blaine resigned, sitting with his back against the foot of Kurt's bed and trying to catch his breath.

"Now that's something I can understand! I don't think my brain is working properly anymore..." Kurt yawned, nestling sideways into Blaine to rest his head on his chest. "I'm just... gonna..."

The surprise that had risen in his chest quickly melted at the sight of Kurt drifting off to sleep, arm across Blaine's waist. He tentatively brought a hand around Kurt's shoulder and nodded off to sleep too before he could think better of it.

***

"Kurt?"

No response.

"Hey, kiddo, you're going to be late for school."

Still no response.

Burt began to climb the stairs, sighing at the top since Kurt's door was closed. What was so hard about the three inch rule? He swung open the door to be greeted by quite the sight—papers strewn about, books all over the place, several empty coffee cups, pens and pencils scattered across the bed, laptops open, feathers littering the floor as if they had gotten into a pillow fight, and, most importantly, his son sprawled across another boy who had his arm protectively around him, both fast asleep.

"Well."

Blaine blinked awake at the exclamation, rubbing his eyes, and, upon realizing the situation, seemed to wake up _very_ fast. Gaze frozen ahead of him, he shook Kurt awake. "Um, Kurt?"

"Mmh?" With a stretch of his arms, Kurt awoke, eyes widening in horror as the situation—and the bright light—hit him. 

"Dad! I—"

"Care to explain?"

"We—we were up late cramming for my history test and we must have fallen asleep! Oh God, what time is it?" Kurt spluttered, shooting a glance at Blaine for help, who looked extremely abashed. 

"It's my fault, Mr. Hummel, I apologize. It was a genuine accident, I—"

"I'm not mad at you. Just get to school and we'll discuss this later." Burt wouldn't look at Blaine, only focused on Kurt, unmoving eyes with a stone-cold glint in them like a shark eyeing its prey but his tone good-natured enough. Turning, a half-amused smile danced across his lips and he shook his head as the door shut behind him.

As soon as it closed, Kurt whirled around to face Blaine, who was covering his face with his hands. "Shit, shit, shit, shit, shit! He probably thinks we're a couple!"

Blaine let himself peek through his fingers. Suddenly, a mischievous look came over him, and he straddled the desk chair in front of him, letting his chin rest on his arms on the chair. "Well, we did sleep together."

That got Kurt to his feet. "Yes! Literally! As in just sleeping! On the floor!" he choked out.

"I'm wondering if your horror should insult me?"

"What? I—no—"

"—I enjoyed sleeping with you."

Kurt exasperatedly started putting an outfit together. "You're finding this _way_ too entertaining."

"... Maybe I'm just flattered."

The straight-haired boy's expression of utter shock at that sentiment met Blaine's playful, joking smile, and he opened his mouth multiple times to no avail, unable to get any sound out.

And with that, Kurt had been left speechless for the very first time.


	5. Something Stupid

"So, my parents are out of town this weekend and I was thinking of throwing a house party Saturday night! What do you guys think?" Rachel announced over lunch on Thursday.

Rachel's house parties were always interesting—they usually involved singing, shots, yelling, laughing, quite a bit of crying, and ended up with nearly all party members completely wasted, dancing and grinding drunkenly, along with a LOT of getting up in the night to puke. Which meant everyone was in.

"Hey, as long as I provide the booze, I'm there."

"You got it, Puckerman." Finn gave him a high five and kissed Rachel's forehead, wrapping an arm around her shoulders.

"Yeah, sure, why not?" Kurt turned to Blaine, who had been quietly sipping from his juice box like a child. "Do you wanna come with me?"

He wouldn't meet his gaze. "I'm sorry, I would, but I kind of have plans...?"

"What, you have a hot date or something, Pretty Pony? Must be quite the arrangement if you're passing up the chance to get hammered with your very own Lady Hummel," Santana drawled.

Blaine ignored the name-calling and stared her right in the eyes. "Actually, I do."

Watching those words leave his lips was like watching it happen in slow motion. Kurt thought he might as well have hit him with a bus. An awful numbness and horribly helpless reality of the situation crashed down on him like a tidal wave, settling in his stomach. _Is this really happening?_ He felt like he was going to be sick. 

He swallowed the burning pang of jealousy in his throat and instead tried to focus all his energy into forming a facial expression that wasn't absolutely destroyed inside. Why did this feel so bad? He never felt this jealous with any of his other friends going on dates. Well, okay, this was different, but Blaine had never even truly liked him in _that_ way, he didn't think. He would be in complete denial if he said he hadn't thought about it—the flirty comments, the stolen glances, how much time they were spending together. But they had never been anything more than close friends. So why did he feel so betrayed, so taken by surprise? 

"Oooooh who's the lucky guy?!" Tina squealed, leaning across the table in interest.

"His name's Sebastian, we used to go to the same all-boys boarding school together before I transferred here."

A cheeky grin crept its way onto Santana's face. "Wanky."

"Anyway, it's nothing serious. He asked me out and I said yes. We'll see how it goes, I guess."

Kurt couldn't hear anything else for the rest of their lunch break. Blood was rushing in his ears and he just couldn't bring himself to look at Blaine. It hurt too much right now.

Before he knew it, he was back in front of his locker, packing up for the day. He saw Blaine approaching in the mirror. _Act like you don't see him and maybe he'll leave you alone. Oh God, what stupid thing are you gonna say if he talks to you?_

"Hey, are you okay? You were quiet all through lunch."

"You could have told me, you know," Kurt blurted without thinking.

"... Told you what?"

"That you had a date. I thought close friends were supposed to tell each other things." He shouldered his bag and started to walk away, Blaine tailing him.

"I'm sorry, but it didn't really cross my mind," Blaine said, tone harder than before. He caught his arm before he could walk any further. "Why are you so upset anyway?"

_Because I like you, Blaine._ _There, I admitted it._ _I like you and I didn't want to do anything about it out of fear of jeopardizing our friendship or the Glee club. Honestly, I still don't want to put that at risk. So why am I acting so stupid? Because that's the effect you have on me, and I hate it._ _I hate the way I like you, hate how much I like it when your hands brush against mine, hate how much I like your stupid hair and your stupid bowties, hate how much you mean to me, and I hate how much I always want to kiss you, and hold you in my arms, and sing with you... And now it's too late. I should have told you sooner._

Looking at his mesmerizingly beautiful amber eyes full of confusion, he couldn't do it. "I don't know," he said flatly. "Sorry."

With that, he walked out of McKinley's doors, leaving a shaken Blaine alone in the hallway with his thoughts.

***

Kurt awoke the next morning feeling exhausted and suddenly irritated by the sunlight hitting him in the eyes. He rolled over and the collar of his shirt brushed against his neck. _Oh crap, I fell asleep in my clothes._

He barely remembered the events of last night, besides skipping dinner to just flop face-down in his bed dramatically and groan into his pillow. He grumbled an incoherent response as his dad called up to him and quickly shuffled off to get ready for the day. Before he knew it, he was back at McKinley, the familiar buzz of conversation and smell of cafeteria food wafting around him. His fork dragged against his plate as he absentmindedly picked at his lunch.

"Kurt, are you okay?" Mercedes whispered. "You're not eating, you haven't said a word, and you're wearing the same outfit you wore earlier this week. By your standards, that means something's _really_ off."

"I'm fine," he mumbled in a very unconvincing tone. "Do you know where Blaine is?"

A look came over Mercedes like _oh-so-thats-what-this-is-about_ before she sighed out, "Last time I saw him, he was talking to Mr. Schue about something."

"Probably his big solo," Kurt said bitterly, mostly to himself than to anyone else.

***

Kurt closed his locker and jumped when he saw Blaine. "Jesus, Blaine, you've got to stop sneaking up on me like that, I'll think you're Karofsky."

"Do I really resemble that much of a bear?"

Kurt snorted. "No. Guess I'm just used to it being bullies talking to me, not people I like. Friends, I mean."

"So we're still friends?"

"Of course."

Blaine breathed a sigh of relief. "Okay, cause you've been acting kind of weird towards me lately. I don't know what I did, but I'm sorry if I hurt you."

"No, it's fine. It was just something stupid. I don't want to talk about it."

"Well, whatever it was—or is—I... I wanted to make it up to you. What I mean to say is, I got it to be a duet."

"I'm sorry?"

"The Regionals solo next week. I talked to Mr. Schue about it, and he's letting me sing it as a duet instead."

Kurt held his history book to his chest, a little confused. "Oh. With who?" 

Blaine's eyes sparkled, as if he was amused that Kurt hadn't gotten it yet.

"You, dummy."

"Wait, are you serious?" A beat. "Ohmygod! You are such a sweetheart! I could kiss you right now!" Kurt lunged forward to hug Blaine, quickly pulling away in embarrassment when he realized what he had said.

Their eyes only met for a second—though it felt like they were staring at each other for an eternity—before they were interrupted by a loud _crash!_ as the history book slipped out of Kurt's arms, snapping him from his trance.

"Um—I—sorry—" he stammered. Blaine let out a tense laugh and they both bent down to pick it up, which didn't help the situation since it just brought Kurt back to when they first met.

"Hey, this reminds me—"

_Oh God, is he going to bring it up too?_

"—how did your history test go?"

"Oh! Um, it went great, yeah. Thank you. I have to go now. I'll catch you later," Kurt piped up, rushing off in the wrong direction, clearly flustered.

Blaine watched him go, shaking his head with a bewildered smile. This boy was going to be the death of him.


	6. Last *Saturday* Night

Music was blaring, lights were flashing, bubbles were blowing, and people were most definitely mind-blowingly drunk.

In short, it was a Rachel Berry House Party.

Kurt sat by the piano, sipping from his red solo cup with a blank look in his eyes. He observed the sea of people swarming the dance floor, and his eyes fell first on the immediate damage—a weeping Santana clinging to Brittany, who was rubbing comforting circles into her back as she screamed, "I _love_ you and you're so _blonde_ and _awesome_ andso _smart_ and I just love you so much, _ugh!_ Kiss me!" before they went back to kissing and grinding. A less frightening sight was Sam and Mercedes slow dancing and drunkenly tripping over each other's feet, laughing. Puck was wearing Lauren's glasses and was spinning Artie and his wheelchair in circles, who had a giggling Sugar Motta in his lap. Then Lauren pushed his head and they promptly started to wrestle each other. A ways away from Kurt, Joe strummed his guitar while Quinn shyly smiled and rested her head on his shoulder. Sitting on the edge of the stage, Rachel was shrieking hysterically in laughter into Finn's shoulder who just held her and kissed her and grinned into the crowd like there was nothing better in the world. Meanwhile, back on the sofas, Tina and Mike were jumping up and down together to the pulse of the music. Finally, his eyes settled on a tipsy someone pushing through the mob, and immediately recognized the thick curls, triangle eyebrows, and iconic bowtie.

It was his very own Blaine Anderson.

Kurt perked up and waved in his direction. _Maybe this night won't be so boring after all._

"Hey, Kurt!" he yelled over the music, stumbling over. Kurt caught him, laughing a little. How long had he been there that he was drunk already?

"Hey! How'd your 'hot date' go?" Kurt mimicked Santana's voice with air quotes, trying to sound as unbothered by it as possible.

"Oh, my date blew," he yelled back, even though they were right next to each other, shaking his head vigorously. A blush rose to his cheeks before continuing. "What I _meant_ is that'll be the the last time I go out with Sebastian! Pretty sure all he wanted to do was get me in bed." A little of his drink spilled, bringing Kurt back to reality, who couldn't help the giddy feeling in his chest. He bit back a smile and nodded.

"I'm sorry to hear that."

"It's okay, this is way betterrr," Blaine slurred, knocking back another shot before grabbing Kurt's hand. "Wanna dance?"

"Um, yeah, sure!" He let himself be dragged into the throng of people. Brittany was now cartwheeling and falling on her face repeatedly while Santana helped her up and watched in amusement over her drink, Mike and Tina had started making out, Puck and Lauren were cuddling (though they would no doubt deny it the next day), and Finn and Rachel were swaying on the dance floor.

Blaine spun himself into Kurt's arms, where he caught him in surprise, laughing, before Blaine took his hand and spun him around too. They joined their arms together and swung themselves around in a circle until they both got dizzy, then Blaine guided Kurt backwards into a dip with a little giggle. They continued like that for a while, dancing sillily, occasionally stepping on each other's feet, and accepting a couple of shots from Sam, Rachel, and Mercedes, getting increasingly more drunk until a slow song came on. 

Out of nowhere, Kurt felt Blaine's arms around his waist, and giggled slightly, stumbling forward to clutch his shoulders and sway with him. He was suddenly aware of how good Blaine's conditioner smelled, inhaling the lovely coconut scent as he pulled him closer—noticing the color of his curls, the crinkles around his enchantingly beautiful eyes when he smiled, his perfectly pink lips, his breath warm against his neck. Their wild, silly dancing had been pushed aside in favor of this warm, inviting tenderness. Kurt's blurry eyes focused on his dance partner, his breath hitching in his throat at the way Blaine looked at him with such intensity. A flutter rose in his chest, and this time he didn't bother to fight it. He could feel his heart skip a beat as the boy drew nearer, everything starting to spin around them. And then, all at once, Blaine's lips were on his—gentle at first, but messy—and time seemed just as frozen as Kurt was. Kurt drew in a sharp breath, fingers tracing the back of Blaine's neck, wanting him closer, the warmth of the kiss washing over him. Blaine gripped Kurt's waist with one hand and slowly tangled the other in his hair. After a couple of seconds, Kurt pulled away, breathless and wide-eyed. It had been a quick kiss, but it had felt like forever.

"... Wow, Blaine, you are _really_ drunk." Kurt quickly dropped his hands from Blaine's neck and looked down with a harsh laugh. 

"Me? Drunk? Pshhhhh... You're really _cute,_ you know that?" slurred Blaine. Kurt shook his head, trying to focus anywhere but his drunk crush in fear that he might just melt at the sight of him—his eyes passed over a tap-dancing Puck, a singing Mike and Tina, a lovey-dovey Finn and Rachel, and a rapping Artie. Sam and Mercedes sat arm-in-arm on the floor, sipping from solo cups, while Joe gave Quinn a piggyback ride around the room and Brittany stopped dancing on the table to allow Santana to take a shot off of her. But his eyes just fell right back to a drowsy Blaine, who was scrunching up his eyebrows in confusion—and possibly to fight back a headache—before promptly tripping over his feet and being caught by Kurt for the third time that evening. He helped him over to the couch, settling him in safely before leaving to grab waters for the pair of them. It was more a distraction from having to think about what had just happened more than anything else. 

_It doesn't matter what just happened, it doesn't matter how good that kiss was, Blaine's drunk as hell and isn't thinking clearly. This has no impact on your relationship. Friendship. Goddamn it, why is it so hard to form coherent thoughts when you're intoxicated?_

Kurt was staring blankly into the fridge, knuckles white around the handle, when he heard a voice behind him. "Hey, Kurt, you feeling alright?" He jumped and whirled around to see Finn looking at him with concern.

He pressed his fingers to his temples, shaking his head. "I feel drunk and really tired and confused," he blurted. Finn didn't hesitate a second to grab him a water from the fridge and uncap it, handing it to him. 

"How much did you have to drink?" he asked, reaching out an arm to steady Kurt as he downed the water.

"Don't know," Kurt admitted in-between gulps.

"Okay. You should probably try to eat something... or something." Finn knit his eyebrows. "I'll be here, so just let me know if you need me." Before Kurt could roll his eyes at his attempt at brotherly-ness, Finn gave him a small nod and walked off to check on his girlfriend. Kurt decided to follow suit, grabbing another water and walking off to check on his... friend.

***

_Whoa, the room is spinning._

Kurt blinked awake, wiping a hand across his sweaty forehead and shielding it across his eyes to block the horribly bright sun filtering through Rachel's windows. His head throbbed like nothing he had ever felt before. _Who is laying on me?_ He squinted, hoping it was someone he recognized.

_Oh, it's Blaine. Of course. The one person I just can't escape._

He sighed, taking in the sight of his peaceful, slumbering, curly-headed crush clinging to him, and his sweet little sighs of sleep. Resisting the urge to run a hand through his curls, Kurt slowly extracted himself from Blaine's grip, careful not to wake him. 

The party aftermath was a mess. Booze, paper plates, and solo cups were everywhere, the floor sticky from spilled drinks, broken glass, straws, confetti, and other random trash (along with several articles of Brittany's clothing) joining them.

Basically all of the partygoers were still there, most of them asleep in odd places, since they had all been much too drunk to get home safely. Puck was curled up in Lauren's arms on the other side of the couch with her glasses still on his head. Kurt mentally noted someone should take a picture of the scene if they ever needed to blackmail Puck. Brittany had passed out straddling Santana, with her face still nuzzled in her mane of silky hair. Mercedes and Sam were slumbering on the floor, hands still intertwined. It reminded Kurt of how otters sleep. Finally, his eyes found Finn with a sleeping Rachel in his lap and he staggered his way toward him to ask him for a ride home before he could puke his guts out.

***

_Ringgg!_

Kurt closed his locker, turning to Rachel. "Thank God you didn't have your party yesterday or that school bell would have sounded like a gunshot," he yawned.

"I don't know, my head is still aching like I _did,"_ she grumbled without her usual annoying patented Rachel Berry enthusiasm. He smirked.

"Well you _were_ going pretty hard on Saturday. You better perk up, we've got rehearsal today." 

She immediately straightened up and put on her game face. "I plan on blowing both you and Blaine out of the water," she said matter-of-factly. "Speaking of... I'll leave you two be." With an obvious wink, Rachel disappeared down the hallway as Blaine approached, embarrassment coloring his face with his hands shoved in his pockets.

_If she had only seen them Saturday night._

"If it isn't the legend himself, Blaine Anderson," Kurt teased, wishing he could kill the flutter in his stomach that appeared whenever Blaine did.

"Hey," he said awkwardly, pausing. "Um, I'm really sorry about Saturday."

Kurt froze. He was really going to bring it up?

"I don't really remember what happened, but that just proves I was hammered, and I have a feeling I did some embarrassing things I should apologize for...?" Blaine looked up, brows furrowed uncertainly.

"Oh! No, it's okay. You were fine," Kurt lied a little.

A thick silence.

"This is going to sound really weird, but..." Blaine drew in a breath, shoving his hands even further in his pockets as he rocked on his heels nervously. "Did I... happen to... um... kiss you?"

Kurt could barely remember how to breathe.

"Oh, um, no," he wheezed out a strained laugh. "Must have been someone else. That you kissed, I mean. Or maybe you just imagined it!" Kurt was clearly rambling and wouldn't meet his eyes. "... Um, we did dance a lot, though."

After a moment of studying Kurt's expression, Blaine relaxed. "Okay, good." He smiled, a little of his normal confidence returning to his—enchantingly beautiful—eyes that widened a second later. "Not that it would be bad to kiss you!" he continued quickly. "I'm sure it would be very—"

"Why don't we talk about something else?" Kurt jumped in, color rising to his cheeks.

"Right. Well." Blaine averted his gaze awkwardly. "I'm looking forward to singing with you today."

Kurt shot a sideways glance at the blushing boy walking with him and sighed to himself. "Yeah, I am too."


	7. Dancing With Myself

A shiver ran through Kurt's body as he toweled off his hair in defeat. _That was the third slushie this week._ The clock ticked above him as if it were taunting his tardiness for today's rehearsal. 

Muscle memory took over and suddenly he was dialing Blaine's number. "Hey, I'm going to be late, I just got slushied," Kurt sighed through the phone, putting him on speaker so he could fuss over his disheveled hair in the bathroom mirror.

"Seriously? Oh, Kurt, I'm sorry. Do you want my help?" his sympathetic voice crackled through the phone.

_Yeah, I really would._

"No," he lied, quickly pushing out of his mind some choice images of Blaine caring for him, eyes full of concern. He shuddered. _Get a grip, Kurt._ "No, you should stay with the group. They'd be lost without their Blaine Anderson, I'm sure. Don't worry, I'll be there soon—you guys can start rehearsing without me."

"Are you kidding? I'm not singing without you, dummy. You're the best part of this performance."

He was glad Blaine couldn't see what a flustered mess he became after that comment, nearly knocking the phone into the sink. "I—"

"Oh, I gotta run. Mr. Schue's having one of his signature pep talks. I'll see you soon!"

With that, Kurt was left in silence, the taste of raspberry slushie still on his lips. Only this time, he didn't mind so much. It just reminded him of Blaine's hair gel. And no matter how much slushie he toweled off, Kurt couldn't seem to wipe the giddy grin off his face with it. He ran a final hand through his hair, feeling almost sick with butterflies. 

He _really_ needed to get a grip.

***

"From the top!"

Kurt huffed breathlessly but still launched back into the performance with Blaine. They moved so fluidly together, voices in sync, a perfect whirlwind. Despite having worked on the number non-stop for the past hour, Blaine still wore a bright smile on his face between lyrics, guiding Kurt across the stage effortlessly as if nothing else mattered but the two of them.

"And that's a wrap!" Mr. Schuester clapped, nodding in approval. "Thanks, you guys, you were great." He patted them on the back, turning to address the rest of the group as the pair stumbled off backstage.

"Well, that performance wasn't gay at all," Kurt could hear Santana announcing from afar. He ignored her voice like a reflex.

"Blaine, thanks for doing this, again."

The curly-haired boy eyed Kurt over his water. "Of course. I wasn't lying when I said I hoped we'd get to sing together. You're amazing."

A smile tugged at Kurt's lips. "You too. And hey, here's to many more." He raised his water in mock-cheers.

"Can I ask you a question?"

"Shoot."

"Are you going to prom?"

Kurt laughed bitterly. "No. Seems like a waste of money just to offer myself up to that much ridicule, a gay boy going to a dance at this school alone. Pretty sure I'd just end up beaten up in a dark corner of the gym, and if even if I didn't, surrounding myself with teen couples doesn't exactly scream fun."

"Oh. Yeah." Blaine's shoulders slumped, and Kurt cursed himself for coming off so cynical. "Are we still on for studying at your house tonight?"

"Yeah, of course!" He offered a small smile. "It was fun out there with you."

"Here's to many more."

***

Kurt tapped his pencil against his notebook, mind cloudy. It was extremely difficult to focus on calculus when the boy he liked was so close. In his room, no less. 

He had made sure the door was ajar by at least three inches—he didn't want to risk the chance of any more embarrassing discussions with his dad. Last time, he had basically just given up on trying to come up with any good reason why he and Blaine had cuddled up together in their sleep, since every excuse sounded lamer than the one before.

Suddenly, Blaine whirled his chair around to face Kurt, jolting him from his thoughts. "I was thinking."

"Oh no, not again. You should really get that checked out."

Blaine stuck his tongue out at him before continuing, twisting a pencil between his fingers. "I was _thinking_ you should go to prom."

"Blaine, going to prom alone is just depressing."

"Who said you had to go alone?"

Kurt bit his lip, not allowing his mind to wander through the layers of that statement on its own. "I don't know, my nonexistent boyfriend? I don't understand what you're getting at here, Blaine."

"What I _meant_ is that we should go together. As friends." 

Kurt inhaled sharply. Had he really just gotten asked out to prom? He forced himself to meet Blaine's eyes—they were as beautifully intense as ever. "C'mon, I'll be a perfect gentleman," he pleaded, teasing.

"Oh yeah?" Kurt propped his head up, eyes shining. He willed himself not to melt under Blaine's gaze. "Alright, we'll do it your way then, Anderson. You've got yourself a date." He froze. "A friend date."

"Of course." Blaine jokingly batted his eyelashes, eyes not daring to break their gaze and lips not yet daring to curl into a full smile.

"Of course," Kurt repeated, the words rolling off his tongue listlessly, his eyes flitting from Blaine's eyes to his lips as if conflicted on which were prettier. 

A beat.

Snapping back to reality with a start, he brought his attention back to his homework as Blaine did the same, casually as he could. All it did was fall in and out of focus as Kurt tried to conceal his grin and the fact that he felt too weak to even hold his pencil.

_Of course._


	8. I Want to Hold Your Hand

"Alright, kids, come up and pick your lab partner's name from the hat."

Kurt strutted up to the front on his turn, fingers crossed behind his back that he wouldn't be matched up with Puck. Mohawk Boy almost always ended his lab experiments by blowing them up, and Kurt wasn't exactly in the mood to clean odd chemicals off his skinny jeans.

He squeezed his eyes shut before finally allowing himself to unfold the scrap of paper he had picked out.

"Blaine Anderson," he breathed upon reading the handwriting. His eyes landed on a grinning Blaine at one of the workstations and shot him a relieved smile back.

"That was pretty lucky, huh?" Blaine nudged his side as he slid into the chair beside him. 

Kurt attempted to downplay how pleased he was with the arrangement with a cool nod. "I'm just worried for Quinn. Being matched with Puck does _not_ end well." He shuddered from past experiences, slipping on safety goggles and trying desperately to ignore the fact that they were messing up his hair.

From the corner of his eye, Kurt could see the other boy shoot him an amused half-smile as they started working, as if debating whether or not to say something. Apparently he came to a decision, since a moment later, with his eyes carefully trained on setting up their assortment of vials, Blaine ventured, "Your hair looks really cute all scruffed up like that."

Kurt's cheeks went hot as he brought a hand up to his hair. Opposite him, Blaine shuffled around the table to avoid his gaze, but Kurt just stared at him with a dorky grin spreading across his face. "Well, you don't look so bad yourself."

He would have assumed Blaine didn't hear him due to his seeming so focused on their assignment, but a fumble of the beaker gave him away and he noticed the boy start to blink furiously, not risking a look up. He obviously wasn't used to Kurt complimenting him back. _Damn, flustered Blaine is even cuter._ Without thinking about it, Kurt reached over to steady the beaker, unintentionally brushing his hand against Blaine's and shooting a spark of electricity up his arm at the touch. He pulled back, neither of them daring to look at the other until Kurt cleared his throat and read the instructions a good ten minutes of silence later.

However, half an hour later, they were back to normal, chatting animatedly about their favorite Vogue covers and Patti LuPone while simultaneously taking notes on the effects of baking soda mixing with vinegar. Through all of it, all Kurt could think about was how well the two of them complemented each other. Even in the lulls in conversation, they worked like a well-oiled machine, anticipating what the other needed so they didn't even have to ask.

In said situation, Blaine piped up, "My friend Nick's throwing a Halloween party tonight. Wanna come with me?" still hunched over his paper, scribbling absentmindedly. "As friends."

"Yeah, I'd love to! As friends."

"Mhm, yeah." Blaine leaned across Kurt for the vinegar bottle and grazed a hand past his chest by accident, sending a blush up his cheeks. In his moment of short-circuiting, Kurt let slip a little too much baking soda into one of the vials and the two of them were suddenly enveloped in a mushroom cloud of blue fizz.

After Blaine overcame his coughing fit, Kurt turned to him sheepishly, making eye contact for nearly the first time since the start of the lab project. "Sorry," he squeaked in embarrassment.

Blaine's dark eyes were laughing, slightly rimmed with red from the reaction. "Looks like Puck isn't the one blowing experiments up this time."

***

**From: BlaineWarbler**

**_2:32pm_ **

**BlaineWarbler: by the way, you can bring as many friends as you want to the party**

**KurtMiddleton: Okay cool! Better not get too drunk this time, we've got Regionals soon.**

**BlaineWarbler: kurttt that was a one time thing**

**BlaineWarbler: i blame puck**

**KurtMiddleton: Of course you do.**

"Hey, faghead! You texting your _boyfriend?"_ Karofsky yelled, but Kurt just kept smiling at his screen like nothing could bother him as long as Blaine was around. "Don't make me use the Fury to wipe that gay smirk off your face!"

Even though he could dish out the verbal abuse, Karofsky knew better than to touch Kurt while teachers were around. Upon Hummel's act of blissfully ignoring him, he huffed and kept pounding his way down the hallway, scanning for other prey to pick on.

***

"So, have you met his friends before?" Mercedes asked, leaning in next to Kurt to view his reflection in the mirror as they got ready for the party.

"No," he sighed. "This'll be the first time."

"Wow, so you two are getting serious, huh?"

"Mercedes!"

She giggled and turned her back before she could be lectured for the millionth time about how _it's not like that!_

"So how's it going with Sam then? You two 'getting serious?'" mimicked Kurt.

"No, we're just taking it slow. He's a really sweet guy, and he's good to me. But it's just a casual thing at the moment." 

Kurt nodded, a smile crossing his face when he noticed her expression. "You seem happy."

She had a dreamy look in her eyes as she put on her jacket. "I am. You know, it's not like it goes much further than kissing and hand-holding, and sneak hugs from behind, but we like it that way. Sometimes we'll just talk about everything and anything for hours and it's the most perfect thing in the world."

It sounded so perfect, Kurt couldn't help but space out dreamily too, thinking about having someone feel that way about him. He leaned over and kissed her cheek. "I'm glad. Now let's go see what this party's all about."

They linked their arms through each other's and headed out into the night.

***

"Damn," Mercedes gawked at the mansion as they pulled up. "You're sure this is the right address?"

Kurt checked his phone again. "Yep... They're private school boys."

"Damn..." she repeated quietly, staring for a moment longer as he went to open her door and offer his arm with a joking, "M'lady?"

At the door, Kurt swallowed back his anxiety for the time being, bringing up a hand to knock before he could think better of it. The door swung open, revealing a grinning blonde boy with side-swept bangs and a navy blue blazer with scarlet trim. He seemed tipsy, accidentally bumping his drink against the wall and staring at the pair of them for a second through unfocused eyes. "Hi?"

"Jeff, babe, is that Wes finally? I swear, if he's still out with David—" Another boy in a matching school uniform came into the doorframe, bumping into his boyfriend. He extended his hand and flashed a blinding smile when he saw the pair standing outside. "Hey! I'm Nick. Who are you guys?"

Kurt shook his hand dazedly. "Um, hi. Kurt. I'm with Blaine?" Mercedes eyed him. "I mean—not like with him, with him—we're just—"

Laughing good-naturedly, Nick jumped in, "It's cool, it's cool. He's mentioned you. Come on in!" Kurt had to resist the urge to ask them what exactly his crush had said about him as Nick let them past, chatting with the blonde boy, Jeff, behind them. Kurt heard something about how they really had to get some blackmail material on Wes and David if they wanted them to come to stuff on time, but their conversation was drowned out in his mind by his awe of his surroundings—high ceilings, wooden shelves chock full of vintage books, old-fashioned drapes guarding vast windows, grandfather clocks pressed into corners, intimidating archways, patterned rugs, low chandeliers, an actual bar, a pool table, and a spiral staircase, the top breaking off into an indoor wraparound balcony that reminded Kurt of something straight out of Harry Potter. 

There was a commotion behind him and he turned to see everyone crowding around another two guys in school blazers. From the shouts of "David! Finally!" and "Wes, is that a hickey?" he identified the pair as the famous Wes and David. He felt _very_ out of place—and knew Mercedes felt the same when they looked at each other wide-eyed—until he saw Rachel dancing over to them. She was alone, since she and Finn had just broken up for the millionth time this school year, but Kurt was sure they would get back together before the end of the week like always. 

"Hey, you guys!" she shouted over the music, dragging them further into the house. "I'm so glad you could come!"

Kurt raised his eyebrows. "Rachel, I'm the one who invited you."

She scoffed and pushed his chest playfully, attempting to drink more but her mouth missing her straw by a mile. Once she found it, she slurped happily until half of the drink was gone, Mercedes and Kurt watching in concern. 

"Okay, Boozey Barbra, that's enough for you." Kurt carefully extracted the drink from her hands, though she didn't even seem to notice, reaching for her straw and making a face when her hand came up empty. She turned her attention back to them. "Hey, Nick's _cute,_ right?" she giggled.

"Rachel, he's literally got a boyfriend."

"What?" she frowned, and at a nod of Kurt's head, followed his gaze to where Nick and Jeff were having a sloppy makeout sesh against the wall. "Oh..." she trailed off, disappointed, before a playful smile returned to her face. "What about _David?"_

"From the conversations I've overheard, I'm 99% sure he's doing Wes."

Her face dropped and she tangled her hands in her hair, wailing, "Why are all the good ones gayyyyy?!"

"Girl, a year ago, I would have agreed with you." Mercedes gave a small laugh, glancing at Kurt. "But, now I have Sam, so I can't talk."

Kurt raised his finger. "I did think he was gay when I first met him."

"Not this again."

"I'm telling you, he's the only straight boy who would dye his hair like that!"

Mercedes shook her head, turning back to Rachel. "What about Finn?"

She snorted in disdain. "Who said he was a good one?"

"Um, you, like a week ago?" Kurt offered.

"What _ever._ I'm going to go get another drink." She ran off before either of them could catch her. 

"Wow, she's—"

"Oh hey, I see Sam!" Mercedes interrupted, her eyes occupied elsewhere. "I'm gonna go say hi."

And with that, Kurt was left in the middle of this prep boy's mansion, alone, yet completely swarmed by a bunch of teens he didn't know. The pumping of the music started to mix with the pumping of blood in his ears— _thump, thump, thump_. Suddenly, despite the giant room, everything felt way too close, and hot, and overwhelming. His heart pounded. Everything around him blurred and started spinning, and he stumbled into the rail of that goddamn fancy staircase, grasping for balance on his unsteady feet. He breathed in sharply—he couldn't get air. Hands trembling, he tried to loosen up his collar, but it didn't seem to help much. He needed to get to a less crowded area. Running as fast as he could, he made it up the staircase, still clutching the railing tight. He decided better of checking any of the bedrooms in case they were occupied, and saw, to his relief, doors to an outdoor balcony at the end of the hall. In weak desperation, he shouldered all his weight against the door until the cool evening air hit him. Thankfully, the balcony was empty, so he sank to the ground and squeezed his eyes shut, burrowing his head against his legs. His heart wouldn't stop racing. He tried to focus on his breathing— _deep breath in, one, two, three, deep breath out._ He pictured a place far away from the balcony, having a picnic with his dad or standing on a Broadway stage, anything to calm him down. Even being in Blaine's arms in the McKinley high school bathroom floor. That definitely felt better than this. And where was Blaine, anyway?

As if on cue, the balcony door swung open and Kurt looked up to see Blaine Anderson kneel next to him. "Hey, are you okay?"

Kurt took a deep breath—that was good, he could breathe—and ignored the loud thumping of his heart in his chest. At least the air was cool out here. "Yeah. Hi," he said shakily. "I just wanted to get away from the crowd for a while. Little overwhelming when you don't know anyone."

Blaine's hand found Kurt's reassuringly. He froze, but Blaine continued on like it was completely normal, running a thumb over Kurt's knuckles and staring up at the stars. "I'm sorry. I should have found you earlier."

He didn't respond—if he had, it was an inaudible, choked sputtering of words that had perfectly summed up what was going on in his mind. He decided to stay silent and take in the moment instead. 

Just Blaine Anderson and Kurt Hummel holding hands under the stars.


	9. Pretending

"We should go inside."

"Yeah, yeah, definitely. Thanks for staying out here with me." 

"Anytime."

Kurt waited for Blaine to let go of his hand, but he didn't budge. It was like they both knew the moment had to end, but neither of them wanted to be the one to make that happen. Finally, Kurt swallowed and slipped his hand out of Blaine's, opening the door for him. The other boy grinned at him as they fell into pace next to each other down the hallway. "I think the boys are gonna perform Thriller soon."

"Oh really?"

"Yeah. And I just might have to join them."

Kurt fake-gasped, stopping halfway down the stairs to dramatically slap a hand to his chest. "You wouldn't!"

Blaine stuck his tongue out at him before joining the crowd of blazer-clad boys that had gathered into position at the bottom of the steps, Kurt leaning against a nearby archway to watch. The curly-haired boy took center stage as the boys behind him began to sing the opening notes a cappella.

"It's close to midnight, and something evil's lurking in the dark," Blaine started to sing, flashing Kurt a smile as the rest nodded their heads to the beat. Everyone started dancing with them as Blaine spun around and pointed to him, barely ever breaking eye contact, and Kurt couldn't help laughing in admiration of this dork's singing skills. Nearing the end of the song, Blaine grabbed his arm and pulled him to the front with him, giving him a little twirl. They jumped around until the song ended and collapsed into laughter.

"That was good!" Kurt giggled, adrenaline still high.

"Yeah?" Blaine shouted back, idiotic smile still plastered to his face.

"Yeah!"

Suddenly, Blaine's expression dropped, replaced with one of panic as he spotted something behind him. "Crap, that's Sebastian." Kurt turned to see a guy whose smirk held a strong resemblance to a meerkat approaching. 

"Really? Meerkat Boy?"

Blaine shook his head trying to hold back laughter. "Meerkat Boy? Yeah, that would be him. Quick, pretend to be my boyfriend." Kurt barely had time to react before Blaine grabbed his hand, pulled him close, and pressed his lips against his cheek. After he pulled away, he kept Kurt close enough that he could smell that amazing coconut conditioner again, and was suddenly glad that Blaine had gone for the cheek and not the mouth, his cheeks flushing pink. However, Meerkat Boy didn't seem put off in the slightest as he stopped in front of them.

"Well, if it isn't the famous Blaine Anderson."

"Sebastian. What do you want?"

"Just to see if I could buy the hottest guy at this lame-o party a drink. That's you, by the way."

"It's an _open bar,_ Sebastian."

"Tomorrow, Scandals, 9 o'clock?"

"Not interested. And if you were paying attention to anything other than yourself, you could see that I have a boyfriend."

"You mean Gayface? I would let her come too, but I'm not bisexual."

Kurt let an indignant puff of air out of his nose and Blaine went icily silent. "Say that again," he said, his voice barely louder than a whisper. "Really, I dare you."

"Aww, are you gonna try to fight me? I wouldn't want to scratch up your pretty little schoolboy face."

Blaine started forward but Kurt grabbed his wrist to stop him. "He's not worth it, Blaine." 

A crowd had started to form around them to see if anything would happen, but Sebastian held his hands up, taking a step back. "Yeah, contain your boyfriend, Gayface. Jeez." 

By this point, even though Sebastian had sauntered off, Kurt was still practically digging his heels into the floor with both arms wrapped around his fake boyfriend to keep him from going after Meerkat Boy. "Shh." He held him like that for a minute until Blaine finally relaxed into the embrace, still breathing heavily like a bull ready to charge. "It's okay," he said soothingly. "I get it all the time, I'm used to it."

"I'm sorry," Blaine said quietly.

"It's okay."

The curly-haired boy shook himself from Kurt's arms, a protective fire blazing in his eyes when he looked at him. "No, it's not."

Kurt folded his arms and sighed. "Well, it is what it is. And you were a good boyfriend," he added jokingly after a moment of silence to break the tension.

Blaine halted for a moment before laughing reluctantly, some of the tension easing from his shoulders. "Yeah, you too." He linked their arms to walk back into the party.

"I didn't know you were into meerkats," Kurt whispered as they disappeared into the crowd.

"Shut uppp."

***

_"Sidney, come back! Sidney!"_

Kurt jumped and dug his nails further into Blaine's arm through their blanket as screams erupted from the screen. It was half past midnight at the Halloween party, and everyone was crowded around the television of Nick's living room watching Scream. Blaine and Kurt had started the movie sitting next to each other with at least a foot of space between them, but throughout the night, they had moved so close that Kurt was practically on top of him, clinging to his arm with wide eyes glued to the screen, burying his head into his shoulder at the murder scenes. Although Kurt's nails were, yes, digging into his arm, Blaine didn't mind so much—he found it cute that Kurt was so immersed in the film, and admittedly was watching him more than he was watching the movie.

Sam and Mercedes were sitting on the floor, Sam lurching forward in anticipation, as close to the TV as he could get, while Mercedes watched in amusement with her back to the sofa. Rachel was nowhere to be found but was probably outside crying drunkenly on the phone with Finn. Jeff was snuggled into his boyfriend's side, smiling sleepily as Nick played with his blonde locks. Wes and David were sitting on opposite sides of the room but kept stealing cute little sideways glances at each other anyway.

Blaine sighed, wishing he could feel the tingle of his lips brushing against Kurt's cheek again, run his hands through Kurt's hair like Nick could with Jeff. But he couldn't complain with him so close, so he simply shared more of the blanket and rested his head against Kurt's shoulder as casually as he could, hoping he wouldn't reject the touch.

To his relief, Kurt pulled the blanket a little further over them, silently relaxing his grip on Blaine's arm.

And for now, that was enough.


	10. Sing

"On the road to Regionals! Woo!" Mr. Schuester shouted from the front of the tour van. It was a tiny thing, barely big enough to fit all of them. He was met with a flurry of cheers from the back as everyone climbed in and bumped their heads. 

It was finally the morning of Regionals, and they were off on a three-hour road trip to Cleveland, Ohio, where it was taking place. The actual competition wasn't for a good ten hours or so, but Mr. Schue thought it would be a fun team-building exercise if they all hung out in Cleveland for the day— _obviously_ —and booked them all rooms in this quirky little inn so they could have a place to nap, practice, and get ready, when they weren't _livin' it up in northern Ohio._ Kurt sighed bitterly and pulled his jacket around him.

As Blaine and Mercedes climbed in on either side of him, he decided it might not be too much of a drag, until Tina launched an impromptu singalong and Rachel shot them all silent death glares as they sang since she was trying to rest her voice until the performance. 

... But he changed his mind again when Blaine began to fall asleep on his shoulder, filling Kurt up with so much warmth and butterflies he nearly imploded. His arm fell asleep too after a while, but he still wouldn't move, just kept holding a soft conversation with Mercedes and Santana, the latter knowing no limit of gay jokes to make. Unfortunately, they hit a big speed bump about two hours into the road trip and Blaine awoke embarrassedly. 

"Sorry," he mumbled sleepily. "Hadn't meant to use you as a pillow."

Kurt couldn't take his eyes off him. "Wish you had."

Blaine gave him a confused smile, opening his mouth to respond, but Sam conveniently interrupted the situation by tugging on his sleeve like a little kid to show him something. Kurt mentally slapped himself for saying that, like _, really, Kurt, why? Suave flirting is just_ not _a good look on you._

Heart pounding, he turned away and suddenly couldn't wait to be in Cleveland.

***

"Okay, when you hear your name, pair up with your buddy." Mr. Schue looked at the first match on the paper. "Finn, you're with Puck." 

Puck gave him a high five and a nod.

"Santana, you're with Brittany."

Santana wore a pleased smirk as she linked pinkies with her girlfriend.

"Quinn, you're with Rachel."

Quinn rolled her eyes and faked a smile at the brunette hugging her.

"Mercedes, you're with Tina."

Mercedes smiled at her kindly, pulling the grinning girl into a side hug.

"Lauren, you're with Sugar."

Lauren huffed at the match as Sugar bounded over to her like a puppy.

"Artie, you're with Mike."

Mike looked between Tina and Artie unsurely before stepping forward. 

"Sam, you're with Joe."

Joe flashed him a peace sign.

"Kurt, you're with Blaine."

 _Ohmygod, you can't be serious. More chances for me to humiliate myself?_ Kurt's eyes nearly rolled back in his head but he took his place next to his crush, who leaned in and whispered, "Hey, this is good, we can practice together."

He gave him a small nod and willed his mind to stop thinking about all the things he'd rather do with Blaine than practice before he embarrassed himself more.

"Maybe I can even use you as a pillow again," Blaine teased playfully, sweeping his gaze over Kurt's dumbstruck expression. After a moment, Kurt composed himself and gave a nervous laugh, but the curly-haired boy had already turned back to their teacher.

***

Now that they had checked in, everyone was in Rachel's room either warming up their voices, having pillow fights, or chatting amongst themselves. Well, except for Santana and Brittany. They were vandalizing the room's guest notebook. 

As for Kurt, he was next to Blaine on the floor, everything blurry in his eyes as he began to nod off. He quickly realized what he was doing and lifted his heavy head with great effort. "Jeez, sorry, I'm really tired. I'm going to go back to the room before Istart using _you_ as a pillow."

"Hey, I don't mind," Blaine said, gently catching his arm as he stood, causing his breath to hitch in his throat.

"No, I'm—I'm sure your shoulder is comfortable as ever, but we've actually got beds now, so..." Kurt shuffled out, stammering nervously up until he closed the door.

Santana's eyebrows raised. "Wow. I would say get a room, but you already did."

"Don't you have _anything_ better to do than listen to other people's conversations?" Blaine asked in annoyance.

"Not really." She tucked a strand of hair behind her girlfriend's ear. "Anyway, it's not like I have a choice. You gays are loud MFs." With that, she went back to helping Brittany color by number since she knew she found it confusing.

After about an hour of sitting through Sam's many impressions, Rachel trying to spoon-feed him honey—"It's good for your voice!"—and Puck's many gay jokes ( _seriously, if Santana wasn't lesbian, they would be a match made in heaven,_ he thought to himself), Blaine decided to head back to his room too and get in another short nap before he had to get ready for Regionals.

What he wasn't expecting when he stepped into their room was a shaking, whimpering Kurt asleep on one of the beds, his forehead beaded with sweat. As he writhed around, tangled in the sheets, it dawned on him that Kurt was having a nightmare. He immediately rushed over, and, unsure of how to proceed as he sat beside the boy, interlaced his fingers with Kurt's, thumb on his wrist to take his pulse. His heart was racing. "Kurt? Kurt, it's me, Blaine. Wake up."

His eyes snapped open, wide with fear and confusion as his mind had yet to fully register the situation. His whole body was trembling and his breathing came out ragged and heavy. 

"Kurt, it's okay. It was just a bad dream. I'm here." Blaine said softly, his voice cracking in sympathy. "What was it about?"

Kurt slowly came back to his senses, looking back and forth between their hands and Blaine's expression of concern. He couldn't get any words out, his heart still pounding. "I—I—" He shuddered, giving up on speech, and hugged Blaine tightly instead, nearly in tears, desperately needing to feel human embrace.

Blaine was taken back to when they had first become friends, after Kurt's particularly bad bout of bullying, hugging on the bathroom floor. He was hit with the sudden realization that bullying was probably what he was having nightmares about, and pulled him close, hands gripping his back through sweat-stained fabric. He wasn't put off in the slightest—he just wanted to be there for him.

Once he pulled away, Blaine ran a thumb across Kurt's forehead to push some sweaty strands of hair out of his face. His brows knit together in worry. "Are you okay? Do you want to talk about it?"

"No," he said hoarsely, shaking his head. "No, it's okay. Just... past stuff. I'm... I'm okay. Thanks."

Blaine nodded, and, not wanting to push him any further, went to stand but Kurt quickly caught his sleeve. "Wait, Blaine. Do you..." He looked down and took a shaky breath before continuing. "Do you think you could stay with me?"

"Yeah. Yeah, of course." He awkwardly propped his back against the headboard and held Kurt close as he shifted to rest his head on Blaine's chest, trying his best not to intertwine their legs. Kurt finally relaxed, breathing slowing as he fell back asleep, and the other boy let out a breath he didn't realize he'd been holding. This was kind of nice, after all. Okay, it was really nice. It was like the first time they had fallen asleep on each other, Kurt's arm wrapped around Blaine's waist and Blaine's around Kurt's shoulders the same protective way like no one could dare hurt him while he was around.

Blaine let his walls come down and drifted off to sleep too.

***

Apparently, he shouldn't have, since he was jolted awake by the sound of Finn bursting through their door. "I—What are you doing?" He had stopped in his tracks at the sight of Kurt curled up against Blaine. "I thought you guys weren't together."

Kurt pulled back, hair sticking out in all directions. "We're not."

"You're sleeping in the same bed."

"It's _not_ what it looks like," he sighed exasperatedly, not wanting to get anyone else involved in the issue of his nightmares.

"Kurt... Do you really want me to tell Burt about this?"

He shot up at that. "Finn! For God's sake, you're so childish! I've seen enough of you slobbering all over Rachel when you're supposed to be helping out in the kitchen to last me a _lifetime._ Besides,I needed help and Blaine is my best friend. You would do well butting out of other people's business," Kurt snapped, shouldering past him.

A hurt expression flickered over Finn's features for a split second before he went back to being miffed. "Fine. I just wanted to tell you we have to leave in an hour and a half and the girls have already started getting ready, so." He pressed his lips into a thin white line, looking between the pair of them, then turned on his heel and left.

"Well, that was pleasant," Blaine blurted, stretching behind him.

"Sorry about all of this. I didn't mean to waste your afternoon away." 

"Kurt, first of all, it's not like Cleveland, Ohio is a party town."

He snorted.

"Second of all, I wouldn't call spending time with you in any way a waste."

Kurt bit his lip, struggling to curb the blush that was rapidly spreading up his cheeks. "That's, um, sweet of you. I—I have to go get ready." He dipped into the bathroom before Blaine could catch just how flustered he was.

***

_Creak, creak, creak._

"Oh my God, will you guys stop that?" Santana yelled, fingers pressed against her temples as she watched Kurt, Joe, Sam, and Tina all jump up and down backstage in an attempt to get their jittery nerves out. Joe was the first to stop since he was way too scared of getting on Santana's bad side, and Tina scuttled off after him. 

Sam and Kurt, however, just shot her looks and kept jumping around together, much to her dismay. She groaned loudly and buried her head in Brittany's shoulder while the boys grinned at each other.

New Directions was going to be the last performance. The Warblers—Blaine's old show choir (otherwise known as the Blazer Boys, as Kurt had internally named them)—were opening the night, and then after that, some show choir they had never heard of called G.O.A.T. Vocals that somehow incorporated a singing goat. Kurt had a good guess of who would win between those two, but he kept his mouth shut.

"We are the Dalton Academy Warblers, and we hope you enjoy the show," a smug voice boomed into the microphone, an inexplicable wave of resentment immediately washing over Kurt when he heard it. Wondering why, he tiptoed over to see who was onstage and rolled his eyes, instantly recognizing it as Meerkat Boy from the party leading the first song.

Blaine appeared at Kurt's side to watch the performance, catching the eyes of some of his old friends and giving them encouraging nods. He clapped politely from the sidelines when Nick branched off of the group to lead the next song.

Behind him, Finn still looked a little put off as he glanced between Blaine and Kurt, but Rachel (newly his girlfriend again, as of the day before) was convincing him to shape up.

Finally, after much warming up, jumping around, and wanting to burn his ears out after hearing that singing goat, Kurt was ready to go on. It all went by so fast—the announcer introduced them to the stage over the loudspeaker, Kurt floated onstage with his friends like a dream, spotlights blinded them, and all of the sudden they were performing Got to Get You Into My Life like it was second nature. It felt like he and Blaine had danced together for years with how flawlessly they played off of each other, Blaine throwing in little moves like pointing to Kurt and holding his hand to his heart. Their chemistry emanated right off the stage and he was sure the judges could feel it—the audience even stood up and clapped right along with them. They ended it with a dip, Blaine's arms wrapped around Kurt's waist, Kurt holding the pose breathless and grinning, chest heaving up and down.

The audience roared with applause, but the pair only had a handful of seconds to bask in the acclamation before they retreated to their places in the back as Rachel led the next song. Mr. Schue caught their attention from the sidelines and gave them both two big thumbs-up, eyes shining with pride. Kurt couldn't stop smiling at Blaine for the rest of the performance, high off the adrenaline rush that could only be described like fireworks going off in his chest. His deep love for performing would never, ever fail him.

***

"In third place, from the Port Clinton Institute of Learning, G.O.A.T. Vocals!"

The batch of singers next to them started jumping up and down and shrieking in excitement, patting their goat that was _much_ too close for comfort in Kurt's opinion.

"And now, without further ado, this year's Regional champions are..."

Kurt swallowed, one hand behind his back with fingers crossed so tightly he probably was cutting off his circulation, other hand in Mercedes's, squeezing in anticipation. The announcer had paused so long, he thought the next words may never come out of his mouth. Or maybe it only took a second. Everything just seemed extra dramatic when the Glee kids stood onstage together.

"... From McKinley High, the New Directions!"

Everyone screamed and jumped around—Sugar tackled the announcer in a hug and Finn pumped his fist in the air while Santana clutched her head in disbelief. Kurt could barely feel his face, but he knew he broke into the widest smile ever, bouncing around with his friends like a puppy. A disappointed group of Warblers next to them applauded half-heartedly, Wes coming over to shake Blaine's hand and clap him on the back.

Kurt couldn't decide which felt better—hoisting the winning trophy above his head in celebration, or seeing that smug smirk finally vanish from Sebastian's face. 


	11. Everybody Talks

It had finally arrived: Prom Night.

Earlier that day, excited chattering had been heard all through the halls of McKinley, teachers gave up on trying to get kids to focus, girls showed their friends pictures of the dresses they had picked out, couples walked down the halls holding hands, and a handful of frantic students ran from person to person trying to get last-minute dates so they wouldn't have to show up alone.

Kurt fidgeted with his tie. He was admittedly quite nervous—it was his first dance, and his first dance as an out gay kid, in a homophobic school, and he was going with a boy, and that boy was Blaine. It was a lot to take in. He wasn't sure what to expect, but found a little solace in the fact that he would be surrounded by his friends no matter what.

Blaine, on the other hand, seemed as confident and unfazed by the situation as ever. They had agreed to meet up at Kurt's after school to get ready, then Finn was going to drive them back over since he and Rachel were going together. Kurt was shaken from his thoughts by the sound of Blaine shutting the bathroom door, emerging all dressed up in his prom suit. He wore his hair naturally curly just for Kurt, along with, of course, one of his signature bowties.

He stopped to lean against the doorframe, staggering when his eyes landed on Kurt. "Wow, Kurt. You look... stunning." It was one of the only times Kurt had seen him completely dumbfounded, and knowing he was the reason for it oddly made the whole thing even more flattering.

He gave him a coy smile, and before he could back out of it, blurted, "As usual, you don't look so bad yourself."

Blaine raised his eyebrows. "Oh yeah? High praise from Kurt Hummel," he teased, not letting his eyes stray from Kurt's.

Kurt sighed when he realized he was still fussing with his neckwear. "Um, can you help me with my tie?" Blaine nodded and stepped close to fix it. _Oh my God, his coconut conditioner is going to be the death of me,_ Kurt inhaled, eyelids involuntarily fluttering at how very near he was and the alluring sensation of his breath hot on his neck. Blaine's gaze was focused on doing his tie, but Kurt's own gaze couldn't be moved from the beautiful eyes of the boy opposite him. Their hazel color reminded him of autumn, and comfort, and radiated warmth in every sense of the word. Suddenly, they were looking at him, too. Blaine was lingering, so close, and Kurt was only vaguely aware of the fact that his hands had stopped moving. In that moment, something had changed. Neither of them could tear their eyes away from each other like a trance. "There," Blaine whispered breathlessly—barely a word—eyes only breaking the gaze to flutter back and forth between his lips in anticipation, feeling his slow breath against his neck with every puff of air. An eternity could have been filled with their locked trance, but instead of letting that happen, Blaine closed the gap between them at long last and brought Kurt into the sweetest, gentlest, most tender kiss there ever was, Kurt pulling him in so close it was as if he was afraid he might evaporate if he didn't hold on tight. Arms passionately wrapping around him and hands tangling in his curls, Kurt sighed at the indescribable warmth of Blaine's skin against his, feeling like he could get lost forever in this kiss, it felt so right.

The taste of Blaine's lips lingered on his own as he pulled away, silent and wide-eyed, bringing a finger up to his lips like he wanted to remember exactly how it felt to kiss the boy he'd been dreaming of for months. "You have no idea how long I've wanted to do that," Blaine hummed, pressing his forehead to Kurt's, still buzzing from the kiss.

"R-really?" Kurt asked in surprise.

The other boy stepped back to beam at him. "Of course. You're Kurt Hummel, my best friend and just about the most gorgeous boy I've ever seen." He held out his arm. "Shall we?"

Kurt linked their arms, cheeks still flushed pink. "Not as friends this time?"

Blaine snorted. "Definitely not as friends."

***

"—Kurt and Blaine. Where are those two, anyway?" Rachel caught Carole, her boyfriend's mom, say before being interrupted by the nearing sound of giggles. She whipped around to see Blaine and Kurt stumbling down the stairs giddily, fingers interlocked with each other's. Although Rachel almost passed it off for one of their "close friends" bits, something had changed, she could sense it. And she went about it the sensible way, too, keeping quiet until they wanted to say something...

"OHMYGOD, YOU GUYS FINALLY GOT TOGETHER!" she squealed, nearly tackling them both to the ground in a bone-crushing hug. _"Yes!_ This means I get my fifty bucks back from Mercedes!" Upon seeing Kurt's expression get increasingly more miffed, she stepped back.

"Well!Thanks to that lovely outburst, I suppose there's no point in hiding it. Blaine and I are going to prom as each other's dates," Kurt declared, eyes flitting nervously between his dad and Blaine before swallowing and continuing softly, "... _non-_ friend dates."

"Aww"s erupted from the girls as Finn whistled and Burt simply stood with arms crossed and eyes sparkling like _I knew it._

"Well, I'm happy for you two. You both look so handsome." Carole sniffled at the sight of both her son and step-son with prom dates, bringing a wet tissue to her eyes.

"Mom! Not again!" Finn grabbed the tissue box, trying to sound as annoyed as he could but he was smiling a little too.

"I'm okay, I'm okay. Alright, crowd around, you four, I want pictures."

Kurt's step-brother reluctantly joined the photo, one hand stuffed in his pocket and the other on his girlfriend's waist, who was flashing her classic Rachel Berry smile and posing like it was a professional photoshoot. Kurt leaned his back against Blaine, who nestled his chin on his shoulder comfortably and wrapped his arms around Kurt.

Burt was trying not to be shaken by the situation, but he couldn't help it—his eyes just shone with pride. He was so proud of his son for coming so far and finding friends who loved and accepted him. He couldn't think about it too much or he'd be reaching for the tissue box soon too.

***

For prom, the McKinley gym had been decked out in fairy lights and gold and white balloons, paper lanterns hanging from the ceiling, delicate white tablecloths over the tables with candles in the center—simple but magical.

Rachel and Finn strolled inside, Kurt close behind hand-in-hand with Blaine and worriedly on the lookout for any incoming slushies. Upon noticing his expression, Blaine gave his hand a reassuring squeeze. "It's okay, Kurt. Nothing is going to happen to you on my watch."

Kurt knit his eyebrows together, stomach churning as he cast nervous glances around the room. "What about you?"

Blaine turned him around and pulled him close, staring right into his eyes. "Nothing is going to happen to either of us," he said firmly. "Now let's just enjoy our night, okay? All that matters is that we're here, together."

Kurt nodded, catching Mercedes's eye. "Let's go say hi."

"—I'm telling you, they're together! They got together before prom, just like I bet!" Rachel was telling Mercedes.

"Well someone's a blabbermouth tonight."

Mercedes whirled around. "Kurt! You guys are really together?"

Kurt went all mushy inside at the way his date was looking at him. "Yep, we're really together," he said more to Blaine than to Mercedes, smiling. 

"And you're sure this happened _before_ prom, right?"

That wasn't the reaction he was expecting. A confused expression came over his face. "I—Yes?"

Mercedes sighed in defeat. "You just put me out 50 dollars, Kurtie. You're lucky I love you." She gave Rachel a bill and then turned back to them. "But also, you guys look so cute together!" she squealed. "I'm glad you finally came to your senses. It's been _exhausting_ watching you guys dance around each other for the past few months. Literally, and figuratively."

Sam came up behind her in a surprise hug. "My precious!" he tried to do an impression of Gollum, but Mercedes just shook her head. His eyes fell on Blaine and Kurt's hands laced through each other's. "Oh, no way, are you guys, like, together now? That's so cool. We should do weird couple things together, like go on double dates and snap at the waiters. Or—"

Mercedes put her finger to his lips in a _shh_ motion and dragged him away to dance before he could ramble on any more, plus Rachel had run off to perform a cover of Crush with Finn, so they were left alone once more, laughing at their crazy friends.

They stood in silence for a moment before Blaine piped up, "Wanna dance?"

"I thought you'd never ask." 

As they twirled each other around, laughing, and swayed together with their bodies pressed close, an all too familiar memory of doing this when both parties were drunk surfaced in Kurt's mind. He halted in his tracks. "I have a confession to make."

He sighed when Blaine gave him a questioning look, and squeezed his eyes shut. "We _did_ kiss at Rachel's party," he admitted, eyes tentatively opening at the pleasant sound of Blaine's laugh. Now it was his turn to be confused. "Why are you laughing?"

"Kurt, I _know._ I don't remember the actual experience well, but you're a _really bad liar,"_ Blaine whispered teasingly in his ear as he started to sway with him again.

"You... knew? All this time?"

"I had a very strong suspicion. I guess I'm just a better liar than you." He paused. "... That sounded better in my head."

Kurt giggled and threw his arms around the boy's neck anyway, pulling him in for a kiss. "Mmh. I'm glad I came to this dance with you."

"Yeah, I am too." Blaine looked at him through shining eyes. "Though I have to say, our second kiss was better than our first one."

"As the one who can actually remember both, yes, I agree. But even drunk, you're a damn good kisser, Anderson."

"Oh yeah? Tell me more."

Kurt pushed his chest playfully, and they danced and talked the night away just like that, together. And that was all that mattered.

***

As prom winded down, the Glee kids all met up at Breadstix and filled up back-to-back booths to end the night on a high note. Well, not literally. There had been plenty of singing already for one night. 

Mike and Tina were sharing a milkshake, Tina dipping her straw into the whipped cream to smudge some on Mike's nose, giggling. Puck and Lauren were seeing who could out-flirt each other. Artie was discussing Star Wars film theory with Sam while Joe listened confusedly, occasionally asking questions like, "Wait, is the movie called Darth Vader or Star Wars?" or "When does the Bible come in?" while Quinn and Mercedes just watched, shaking their heads. Rachel had fallen asleep in Finn's lap as he traced patterns along her features—he was only half-participating in the Star Wars conversation anyway. Sugar had gotten bored and left Artie's side to talk the waiter into giving her free stuff. There was even a rare sighting of Santana genuinely smiling across the table when Brit fell into her arms. 

Watching the chaos unfold around them, Blaine let his fingers slip around Kurt's until he could feel the heat of their palms pressed together. His date intertwined his legs over Blaine's under the table, leaning his head on his shoulder. He let out a happy little sigh, silently wishing the night would never end.


	12. As Long As You're There

Kurt and Blaine had been dating for a couple of weeks now, and Kurt could honestly say he'd never been happier.

From study sessions at his house where he just sat on his bed right next to Blaine, so close that their shoulders pressed together, laptops on their laps, sharing earbuds, enduring the hassle of typing with one hand if it meant holding Blaine's with the other—with the door open at least three inches, of course—to shivery nights sitting out in the grass and resting his head on Blaine's chest for warmth as they looked at the stars together. With McKinley being a pretty homophobic school, and them being virtually the only openly gay kids there, they had to resort to discreet forms of PDA while in the presence of their peers. But that didn't stop them from talking to each other constantly, sitting together as much as they could, holding hands under the table, and stealing quick kisses when no one was looking.

"Hey, Earth to Kurt." Mercedes waved a hand in front of Kurt's glassy eyes. "What were you thinking about?"

"Blaine," he sighed dreamily, coming back to reality, where he was sitting on Mercedes's bed with her, Rachel, and Santana at her sleepover. 

Santana rolled her eyes while the others "aww"ed. "Your puppy love _is_ physically sickening to me, but I have to give you props, Hummel. Normally Blaine dresses like a grandpa and you've actually gotten me to hate his looks slightly less." She picked at her nails. "... And sometimes it's kind of nice having some fellow gays around."

Kurt stared at her in awe—that was really sweet by Snix standards. Upon seeing his expression, she snorted. "Don't get any ideas."

"So, really, what happened to you guys going to prom as just friends and you coming to prom all lovey-dovey?" Mercedes asked, looking at him curiously. "I thought he was 'totally pretentious.' Your words."

"Come on, you know you didn't believe me even then," Kurt teased and propped himself up on his elbows thoughtfully. "I don't know, something just kind of... clicked, between us. We were always flirting with each other but we were too scared of messing up our friendship that it never lined up quite right. And then it did. And it was _magical,"_ he joked in a sing-song voice, giddy smile coming onto his face.

"You know, that's kind of how it was with me and Finn—" Rachel began, turning the conversation back to herself after lasting a record five minutes. They all groaned and spent the night listening to the exhausting love story that was Finn and Rachel.

***

"Hey, hot stuff. I brought you coffee." 

Kurt whirled around to see Blaine smirking at him, two coffees in his arms. He pretended to fan himself with his hands. "Jeez, Blaine, you can't just go around saying that kind of stuff," he said out the corner of his mouth. "Not when I can't kiss you."

His boyfriend leaned in and gave him a peck on the cheek, reaching up to brush a stray hair out of his face. Kurt could feel himself blush harder at the touch.

His eyes twinkled. "That doesn't sound like such a bad thing to me."

"You _know_ we can't. It's for our own safety. Get a grip, _hot stuff."_

Blaine sighed in defeat as they walked together, matching each other's paces. "Fine, I know. I can't help it sometimes"—he swept his gaze over Kurt from head to toe—"and you just look really good today."

"And you're always making me blush," Kurt laughed, his flushed features confirming. As a compromise, he reached over and slipped his hand into Blaine's effortlessly. All felt right in the world for about two, three good seconds before—

"Hey faggots, why don't you find somewhere else to spread your gayness?"

Kurt froze and Blaine immediately whirled around. "Excuse me, what did you say to my boyfriend?"

"Blaine—"

"No, really, I just want to know why someone would feel a need to say such an awful thing to a human being." Blaine stared Karofsky down fiercely, even though the bully was half a foot taller. He was only met with a chuckle. 

"Aww, look how cute he gets when he's angry!" Dave teased.

Kurt wheeled on him. "Really? If I didn't know better, Dave, I would say that sounded a little gay."

A panicked look flew into Dave's eyes and he immediately staggered, clearly shaken. "I—no—screw you, man! You don't want to mess with me!" He shouldered his backpack and hastily rushed past them, shoving Kurt in the process and causing him to stumble backwards into Blaine's arms.

"Well! He's not coming out anytime soon," Blaine whispered. In response, Kurt just shook his head in disbelief. "Hey, um... It's really hard not to kiss you when you're so close."

"Hm," Kurt breathed, eyes flitting from his eyes to his lips for a moment before slipping out of his arms. "Guess I'll just have to go, then." He started to walk away jokingly, turning around a few steps in to walk backwards so he could see his boyfriend laughing at him.

"Noo, Kurt! Come back!"

***

A handful of slushie facials later, Blaine and Kurt had made it through the day in time for Glee club. By now, everyone knew that they were officially dating, and since it had been a few weeks, the gay jokes had died down. Even Santana held back most of her biting remarks. At every minor display of affection, though, Rachel would immediately turn to Finn and try to outdo them as if it were a competition on who the cutest couple was. Kurt didn't mind; he knew he would win if it was. He never even got bored in the class anymore because Blaine would always whisper things in his ear to make him laugh.

At the moment, Kurt was casually taking a seat on Blaine's lap and slinging an arm around his neck. He couldn't help the indescribable desire to be close to him almost all the time now. He had felt that way before, too, but now he actually could do something about it without it being weird—a fact Kurt was very grateful for.

Kurt smiled, absolutely beside himself with happiness for the first time in years as he straightened out his boyfriend's stupid bowtie that he loved so much. Things would be okay like this.


	13. Constant Craving

"Like this?"

Kurt laughed. "No. Let me show you how."

It was late Saturday afternoon, and Kurt and Blaine were in the kitchen baking cookies. As they had discovered, Blaine wasn't very good at baking and was currently losing a fight with the sifter, decorating the counters (and his clothes) with a thin layer of flour. 

"Here." Kurt came up behind him and steadied his hands over the mixing bowl, the heat of his touch sending little sparks up Blaine's body. He tipped his head back to meet his boyfriend's eyes—he was so close. Kurt smiled at the contact and gave his hands a little reassuring squeeze, before, unfortunately, Blaine felt the warmth fade and suddenly the boy was back on the other side of the kitchen counter. Upon seeing Blaine's expression fall, Kurt leaned over and kissed his cheek, laughing.

"I keep having to remind myself not to blush anymore when you do that," Blaine giggled, bringing up a hand to the spot Kurt had kissed him—his cheek was burning.

"No, but it's cute!" Kurt teased, sticking out his tongue before turning his attention back to the faded recipe. It was obvious the recipe had gotten a lot of use over the years—the edges of the paper showed the wear and tear, with smudges and drips and the faint yet unmistakable scent of cookie dough wafting from it. Just as he told Blaine, he had turned to baking as a source of calm and happiness after his mother's death. It always made things seem a bit better, no matter the situation... though this situation was pretty great already.

Even though he was trying to sift flour, Blaine couldn't take his eyes off his boyfriend. He was just so perfect. And he felt so grateful that he was one of the few people who saw the real Kurt in instances like this, with messy, tousled hair, a rare sight, in a stained apron, sleeves of his sweater rolled up above the elbow, flour covering every inch of him. It was on his hands, caked under his fingernails, sprinkled in his hair, smudged on his sweater, dusting his apron—there was even a little on his cheek. And Blaine thought it was one of the most beautiful things he'd ever seen. 

"What are you smiling about?" Kurt quirked an eyebrow, eyes sparkling in amusement as he cracked an egg over a separate bowl.

"You."

Kurt didn't say anything, just smiled to himself, keeping his eyes on what he was doing. He traced a finger down the list of ingredients until finally getting up the courage to ask, "Hey, when did you know?"

"Know what?"

"That you liked me." Kurt was looking at him now, propping himself up on his elbows with such interest Blaine couldn't help laughing nervously as he thought about the question.

"I'd _like_ to say as soon as I sent you and all your sheet music crashing to the floor outside the choir room... But although I knew you were the most beautiful person I'd ever seen, I don't think it actually hit me that I was crushing on you until I watched you tell off Santana at our lunch table about being just friends." Blaine tilted his head as he mixed the batter together. _"Which_ wouldn't have happened unless she prompted it. Which means I have Santana to thank."

Kurt snorted at the last part. "Uh huh."

"What about you?"

He sighed. "It probably started around 'The Incident,' when you were my _knight in shining armor,"_ Kurt teased in a dreamy voice. "But, like you, I don't think I realized how far I had spiraled until you announced your date with Sebastian. I felt like I had gotten run over by a truck. That's when I knew."

Blaine's heart nearly broke in half as Kurt talked about how destroyed he was when Sebastian had asked him out. Kurt's tone only had a little bitterness in it now, like the aftermath of too much thought on the subject, but he could tell it hurt still. "Kurt, I'm so sorry."

"Not your fault. How were you supposed to know?" Kurt shrugged it off as best he could, feeling his boyfriend's eyes boring into his back as he turned to grab a baking sheet.

"I... I was so clueless," Blaine said, mostly to himself, spatula in the air, as if this were a revelation.

Kurt laughed. "Blaine, it's okay. Besides, you kissed me just two days later."

Groaning, Blaine dropped his head in shame. "Ohmygod, don't remind me. I do such stupid stuff when I'm drunk."

"I had a good time!" Kurt protested. "I mean, you did trip over your own feet at least three times—"

"Hey, what can I say, you sweep me off my feet—"

"—and you did try to reenact that scene from Dirty Dancing, but all in all, any night with you is a good night, Anderson." His eyes twinkled as he advanced slowly, until they were just inches apart, and took Blaine's hands in his. "Although, it made it a lot harder to act like we were just friends after you confirmed that night you were just as good a kisser as I had feared," he sighed, a hint of seriousness hidden in the joking tone of his voice and upward quirk of his lips.

"Well, for that, I really do apologize," Blaine laughed, unable to tear himself away from those beautiful galaxy eyes, so intent in their gaze.

"Mm, I'll get over it someday."

"I'll help you with that."

Blaine leaned in gently, still holding his boyfriend's hands, and barely brushed his lips against Kurt's before raising up on his tiptoes to plant a sweet kiss on his forehead. Kurt looked back at him, surprise written across his face but a smile tugging at his lips. "How do you do it?" he asked, shaking his head.

Blaine furrowed his brows. "Do what?"

"Always manage to surprise me; be spontaneous, and fun, and perfect," he sighed, turning away to fold chocolate chips into the batter. Blaine simply grinned and slipped his arms around the boy's waist from behind.

"Well, I don't know about perfect, since I'm _pretty_ sure I drunk texted Wes and may have fallen down the stairs into your arms at least once at Rachel's party."

"You're such an idiot." Kurt giggled, turning to grab an egg from the carton and crack it over his curls. Blaine gasped, retaliating by throwing a fistful of flour his way. Kurt fought back with a toss of cocoa powder across Blaine's skinny jeans. He dipped a finger in the cookie batter and smudged it across Kurt's nose, laughing. By the end of it, both were laughing hysterically and covered in baking ingredients, Kurt's hair even more mussed than before and—Blaine didn't even want to get started on his own hair as egg dripped down his curls.

"I may be an idiot, but I'm your idiot." Blaine grinned at him. "Come here, you've got some chocolate on your nose." He tugged him forward and placed a sweet, light kiss on his nose.

"Is... is it gone?" Kurt said, unexplainably breathless.

"Well, actually, no, but it was a good excuse for me to kiss you again." Kurt giggled as Blaine brushed a finger across his nose to get the chocolate off. He almost leaned in to give him another kiss, but Kurt pressed a finger to his lips, gently pushing him back.

"Come on, charmer boy, we've got to get these cookies in the oven."

Blaine sighed and popped some cookie dough in his mouth. "I don't know, it tastes fine just like this."

Kurt shook his head, holding back a laugh as he hid the bowl from him, twirling around the kitchen with it in his arms as if it were his dance partner—though Blaine knew that title was reserved for someone else.

A good ten minutes of joking around later, the cookies were in the oven and Blaine was cleaning up the mess on the counter as Kurt scrubbed the dishes. With baking soda in his hand, Blaine stopped in his tracks halfway to the pantry as a thought struck him. "Hey, we haven't actually had our first official date yet."

Kurt wiped his forehead and met his boyfriend's eyes. "Yeah, I guess not. That's okay, though, I still consider you my boyfriend," he teased.

Blaine rolled his eyes. "I _know,_ but I wanna take you out, officially."

"Like, take me out as in, what you learned in boxing—?"

"Oh my God, you are the worst. Tell me why I spend time with you again?"

"Because I'm amazing and perfect."

"Oh, right." Blaine pressed a kiss to his cheek, pulling back to look at him through his thick eyelashes. "You are, you know."

Kurt smiled and blushed under his intense gaze, opening his mouth to say something before they were interrupted by the timer beeping. "Oh—I, um, I'll get that." Kurt wiped his hands hastily on a dishtowel and bent down to retrieve the cookies from the oven. "They look good!"

Once they had cooled down, the boys sat next to each other with warm milk and cookies, nudging each other's feet back and forth playfully under the counter. "So," Blaine broke off a piece off his cookie for Kurt to take a bite of. "I could take you to the movies on Friday. I think they're doing an old classics thing, we could go see Back to the Future or something."

Kurt licked the chocolate off his lips and smiled, brushing one of his boyfriend's curls (still decorated with egg) out of his face. "Alright, it's a date."

"What the hell happened to you two?" Burt laughed, voice booming as he walked in the kitchen, taking in the sight of his son and his boyfriend both looking like more ingredients ended up on them than in the actual batter. Kurt whirled around.

"We were baking!" he giggled.

"I can see that," his father said, raising an eyebrow at the pair of them as he grabbed a cookie from the pan. It brought a smile, however incredulous, to his face to see his son so happy. He leaned back, knowing full well he was probably interrupting a moment. "How are you doing, kid?"

Blaine raised his head. "Oh! Um, very well, sir." Kurt rolled his eyes and grabbed his boyfriend's hand, dragging him from the counter and towards the stairs as Blaine shot Burt a helplessly sympathetic look. Burt simply waved him on with a small laugh.

Kurt threw a hasty, "We're going to go study!" over his shoulder and ran up the stairs even though they had no homework to do.

"Door open!" Burt called after him.

"You wouldn't let me forget!"

***

Kurt had changed out of his clothes into a clean tee and sweats and freshened himself up in the mirror while Blaine had washed the egg out of his hair in the bathroom. He bit his lip, willing himself not to blush as he watched Blaine take off his flour-covered shirt and pull one of Kurt's sweaters over his head. He noticed him staring and did a little twirl. "How do I look?"

Kurt tried—and failed—to push the image of Blaine's abs rippling over his skin from his mind, warmth building up in his chest and flowing to his cheeks. "Um, really hot."

"Is that so?" he smirked, climbing onto the bed to take a seat next to him.

"Mhm. You know what's so great about us dating? Now whenever I feel like it, I can just do this." Kurt grabbed a fistful of sweater and pulled Blaine forward, smashing his lips into his passionately.

"Mmh, you taste sweet," Blaine smiled against his lips as he caught his breath.

"Probably my chapstick, it's vanilla," Kurt breathed, bringing a hand up to his boyfriend's cheek as his own flushed scarlet.

Blaine pushed him onto his back, barely ever breaking the kiss as they tangled their legs together, kissing him with such gentle yet demanding intensity it was as if his life depended on it. The flavor of vanilla mixed in with the taste of Kurt's lips was addictive and he never wanted to stop. He could drown himself in this kiss and it would be okay, as long as he never had to leave Kurt's side. "Never stop wearing it, ever," he whispered, pressing kisses up Kurt's jaw and down his neck to give him a second to breathe, Kurt's hands gripping his waist. 

Kurt laughed, a clear, wonderful sound almost as cute as he was himself—"I'll take it you like how it tastes?"

"I like how you taste."

Kurt inhaled a wrecked breath, half-heartedly trying to push Blaine away. "I can't do this with my dad here," he sighed, forcing his eyes open only for them to flutter closed again at the sensation of Blaine's hand clutching his hair as he kissed his neck. He was squeezing a fistful of sheets in one of his hands now to keep from making any noise, silently cursing his dad and his rules. Indescribable warmth had spread to every inch of his body, and he wanted Blaine closer, closer, but knew if he pressed him any closer he wouldn't be able to tear himself away. So, he squeezed his eyes shut one last time and pushed Blaine off of him with a heavy breath. "I can't, I'm s—"

"Kurt, don't you dare apologize. It's okay. And whatever you're comfortable with is always okay." 

He smiled and turned on his side after a moment of catching his breath, arm tucked under his head, to face Blaine. "Thank you." He traced a finger along his cheek affectionately for a minute before their comfortable silence was broken by an awkward throat clearing in the doorway.

"Um, hi, sorry." Finn avoided his gaze as Kurt craned his neck to see who it was. "Burt just wanted you to know dinner's ready." With that, he shuffled back out, obviously having felt like he interrupted something.

Kurt rolled his eyes and turned back to his boyfriend, both of their faces still a bit flushed. "Well, we better fix your hair unless we want to be _really_ obvious."

Blaine laughed, reaching over to brush a stray hair from his forehead. "Yours too."

***

Once they had cleaned up, they stumbled down the stairs together once again in giggles. Their hands were locked together, Blaine pausing at the foot of the stairs to plant a kiss on his cheek before they took a seat next to each other at the dinner table. Kurt just shook his head at his boyfriend's flawless table manners and attempts to impress his dad, taking a moment to fuss over his curls when they fell out of place. And even though they didn't see each other again until the school week started, they kept the same clothes on all weekend just so they could smell like the other, a reminder that never failed to make Kurt smile.

And, of course, they always had the cookies.


	14. It's Not Unusual

"Hey, wanna go out tonight?"

Blaine closed his locker to meet Santana's completely serious expression. "Sorry, Santana, you're not really my type," he quipped, smirk tugging at his lips.

She snorted, walking alongside him down the hallway. "Funny, Warbler Boy. No. I was wondering if you and Kurt wanted to double date with Brits and I."

He raised a surprised eyebrow. "Really? I didn't think that was your type of thing."

"It's not, but Brittany really wants to for whatever reason she got in that genius head of hers, and you gays aren't totally lame, so."

"That's sweet. Santana's gone soft," Blaine teased good-naturedly, genuine smile across his face now.

"Shut it, Anderson. You're tempting the razor blades all up in here." She made a wild gesture around her hair before continuing. "I'm only doing it for my sweet lady kisses. So, what do you say?"

"Um, yeah, sure. We're going to the movies at nine but we could meet you at Breadstix at, like, eight?"

"Deal. But if word gets out that I was nice to you, I _will_ go all Lima Heights on your sorry asses, you hear?"

"Loud and clear." Blaine smiled and they branched off separately down the hallway, leaving him shaking his head. He hadn't seen Kurt much that week due to both of them being way too busy in classes, but they still took whatever time they could to check in with each other for a minute and kiss the other's cheek before they had to go. 

**To: KurtMiddleton**

**BlaineWarbler: so apparently we're double dating with santana and brittany tonight at 8, breadstix**

**KurtMiddleton: What?? Are they blackmailing you?**

**BlaineWarbler: she just claims brittany can't get the idea out of her head? seems pretty innocent to me**

**KurtMiddleton: Oh sweet sweet Blaine**

**KurtMiddleton: Nothing is ever innocent with Santana**

**BlaineWarbler: cmon i promise we'll run the second she pulls out the razor blades**

**BlaineWarbler: pick you up at 7:30? <3**

**KurtMiddleton: Fine**

**KurtMiddleton: I would say you better look as cute as possible to make up for this but unfortunately you always do**

**BlaineWarbler: even if i didn't, you cover that for the both of us**

**KurtMiddleton: So fucking charming**

**KurtMiddleton: See you tonight xx**

Blaine slipped his phone back in his pocket before the teacher could catch him texting at his desk, though if she bothered to look over, she would probably be able to tell he wasn't grinning about Biology.

***

Kurt did a little twirl in the mirror and ran downstairs, nearly giddy with butterflies. "Dad, I'm going out!"

"Home before 12!" came a yell from the back.

"I know! Love you!" He shut the door behind him and skipped out to Blaine's car, where he was leaning against the hood while he waited. His face immediately lit up at the sight of Kurt.

"Damn, you lived up to your end of the bargain," Kurt sighed dramatically, draping his arms around Blaine's neck while he did the same around Kurt's waist.

"And what's that?" Blaine batted his eyelashes, not breaking his gaze for a second. 

"Being gorgeous."

"Mm? I thought I was supposed to look cute."

Kurt pulled back teasingly like he was realizing something. "So I guess you _did_ break the deal, then. Always knew you were a bad boy at heart."

Blaine let out a genuine laugh at that and hooked a finger through his belt loop, pulling him closer into a kiss, letting his eyes flutter closed at the warmth that always bloomed between the pair of them when they touched and at just how soft Kurt's lips were against his, giving a little gasp at the way Kurt's hands tangled in and pulled at his curls. Blaine parted his lips and pressed into him intently, fingers curling against Kurt's waist as he deepened the kiss, tugging at the hem of his shirt before—

"Wow, you guys have a very different idea of what it means to go out on a date than Rachel and I do." 

Kurt let out an indignant noise against Blaine's lips, lingering for a moment before he whirled around to see Finn standing in the driveway, frozen halfway to the recycling bin. "Finn, is a little privacy too much to ask for?"

His step-brother mumbled a quick, "Sorry," and retreated with his hands up in surrender.

"I swear there is _no_ privacy around here," muttered Kurt under his breath, turning back to his boyfriend with a small sigh. "How mad do you think Santana would be if we... didn't... show... up?" He treaded a finger playfully up Blaine's chest with each word, looking his expression up and down.

He swallowed a shudder. "The razor blades would probably come out," he laughed.

Kurt sighed, "Fine," and, faking a pout, reluctantly disentangled himself from Blaine's embrace. Blaine got the passenger door for him—"Wow, such a gentleman."—and made his way to the other side. They pulled out, Blaine draping his hand over the steering wheel while he drove, the other clasped in Kurt's over the console comfortably, as if their hands were meant to hold each other's.

***

Kurt had barely slipped into his seat across from Santana and Brittany at Breadstix before he was hit with a "Ohmygosh, Unicorn! Remember when we dated?" from Brittany, who then seemed to lose interest as fast as she gained it, slurping on her soda.

His eyes went wide as his boyfriend raised a questioning eyebrow at him. He could barely glance at him, choking out, "Um, long story," hoping the dim atmosphere toned down his deer-in-headlights expression.

"Lady Hummel here was trying to act straight for his dad," Santana drawled, exhaling the sentence as if it took great effort as she gestured lazily between the pair of them. "That _obviously_ didn't work out."

Brittany snapped her head up and nodded vigorously in agreement. "Totally. That's when I was keeping that bird in my locker."

Blaine shook his head, trying to make sure he wasn't dreaming. "I—"

"Oh! Warbler Blaine, it's always been a dream of mine to sing with you."

"Well, that's, um, nice?"

"They have a karaoke machine here," Brittany continued, an expectant look falling across her features.

Blaine couldn't let down her excited puppy eyes, especially with Santana glaring daggers at him like she would murder him if he did. "Hell, why not? Let's do it." 

"Yesss!"

He offered her a hand as soon as she stopped pumping the air with her fist. She stuffed one last breadstick in her mouth and accepted, jumping up and down excitedly on her way towards the stage.

 _"What_ just happened?" Kurt buried his head in his hands as Santana cast him a head-to-toe look before kicking back in her seat.

"C'mon, let's just enjoy our view of the Sunshine Twins."

Apparently resigning to her suggestion, Kurt followed suit, glancing sideways at her amused expression.

"... She really does make you happy, doesn't she?"

"Brittany's the best thing that ever happened to me," she responded matter-of-factly, lips barely moving so it wouldn't look like she was actually making conversation, eyes still glued in the direction of her girlfriend.

Kurt kept up the gaze for a moment longer before giving an appreciative sigh to himself and turning his attention back to their partners, who were attempting a duet of Shout and trying to get the whole restaurant into it while Santana ordered food for the table.

Blaine caught his eye across the room and winked, grinning before making a heart sign with his hands, to which Kurt nearly melted into a puddle but responded by blowing a kiss back. His boyfriend was dancing like an absolute dork and he thought it was just about the cutest thing he'd ever seen. As Brittany finished up the duet, Blaine high fived her, and they headed back to the table to their respective partners. Kurt couldn't help noticing the way Blaine raked his fingers through his curls as he smiled like an idiot. He probably had a serious case of heart eyes but he didn't care, jumping up to give him a quick hug. "That was so good!" he squealed.

"Yeah?" he grinned, rolling up the cuffs of his sleeves as he slid into the seat next to him. 

"Mhm." Kurt couldn't take his eyes off him, gaze routinely slipping from his eyes to his lips. "You look really cute right now."

A frown came over Blaine's face, but his eyes were twinkling. "That's confusing. I thought I was, like, a bad boy now. Does this mean I'm innocent?"

Kurt giggled and traced a hand up his boyfriend's thigh, leaning over to whisper, "I never said that."

Blaine froze at his boyfriend's breath hot on his neck, biting his lip to try to stop the blush spreading up his cheeks as he glanced around. Thankfully, Santana and Brittany were preoccupied with each other on the other side of the table.

"What would you say if I asked you to make out with me in the bathroom right now?" Kurt said lowly out the corner of his mouth, absentmindedly playing with Blaine's hair.

He loosened his collar, blushing furiously now. "I—um—Kurt—we've got company." 

"Yeah, but you see, I haven't seen my boyfriend all week, and he's really cute, and he's got these really nice arms and these tight-ass skinny jeans, and he sings like an angel and dances like an idiot, and I can't focus on anything else when he's around."

"Oh, well, if that's the case..." Blaine finally met his eyes and they both broke out in giggles, Kurt gently grabbing his wrist to drag him out of his seat.

"W-we're gonna, um, just run to the bathroom real quick—" Blaine informed their company, practically tripping over himself as to hastily stand as Kurt tugged impatiently on his sleeve. Santana could have sworn she heard a low whine, but her imagination could go to some odd places.

"Aww, that's so cute, they take bathroom breaks together," Brittany said cluelessly, reaching over for another breadstick. "We should do that."

Santana just stared at her.

***

As soon as the door snapped shut, they were all over each other. Blaine took Kurt's face in his hands and kissed him with such passion it made Kurt's knees go weak. Kurt grabbed at his waist roughly and steered them towards the wall, not breaking the kiss until he had pinned him against the wall, taking a second to inhale just how good Blaine was, his cologne, his conditioner, his everything. And just like that, Blaine had flipped the position so Kurt was backed against the wall, bringing a hand up to the back of his neck, pressing little kisses from his lips to the corner of his mouth, to his jaw, his cheek, his neck, below his ear, back up against his cheekbones, covering him in loving kisses.

"Damn, Blaine," Kurt gasped, hands clutching desperately at his boyfriend's shirt. "And to think, for a second, I almost thought you didn't want this."

Blaine snorted—the impact of the quip had been knocked down a few notches due to the fact that Kurt was stumbling over his words breathlessly, but he still found his attempt at banter cute as hell.

One hand dipped down to graze the back of Kurt's leg, lifting him up so he could tangle his legs around Blaine's waist as he propped him up on the bathroom counter. Kurt's arms automatically wrapped around his neck as they locked lips, Blaine running a hand up Kurt's thigh to his waist, playfully biting his lip before going back to neck kisses. 

"Blaine, if I go back out there with a hickey, that's gonna be—mmh—really hard to cover up."

"Shh," he laughed against his skin. "I'm not gonna give you a hickey, babe."

Kurt giggled. "Babe?"

Blaine kissed his nose, grinning. "Babe."

Between heavy breaths, Kurt pulled him back in by his collar, leaning in closer to take back control and run his fingers down his spine. Blaine shivered at the little tingles coursing through his body like sparks of electricity, smashing their lips together again in a feverish attempt to get as much of him as he possibly could.

"Well, if it isn't Mr. and Mrs. 'always will be just close friends.'" Santana hid a smirk as she brushed past them to wash her hands for no apparent reason.

"Santana!" They both jumped, cheeks hot, hair disheveled and shirts rumpled as they quickly tucked them back in.

"Oh, no, it's fine. Don't stop on my watch." She tightened her ponytail in the mirror. "Brit and I do plenty of that especially around the school. Bathrooms, deserted classrooms, janitor's closet, under the bleachers, backstage of the auditorium, library"—she turned to face Kurt—"and don't pretend you're not taking notes, Lady Hummel. I can see right through you."

She didn't bother hiding her smirk now, pausing to bask in the flusteredness of the two boys in front of her. "Anyway, Brit just wanted me to make sure that Unicorn and Warbler Boy didn't get flushed down the toilet. She claims it's happened to her before."

Blaine cleared his throat. "Um, are you sure she's okay out there by herself?"

Santana narrowed her eyes. "Brittany's perfectly capable of being alone for a few minutes. But she's not alone, some of your friends from Gayton Academy ran into us. They'll probably storm the place if you don't come out in the next few minutes."

"O...kay well she's gone," Kurt said, watching her turn on her heel and leave. Face still flushed, his hand found Blaine's again. "One more minute?"

"Please."

He dropped from the counter, landing on his feet to pull Blaine into a smooth kiss. "I'm so glad we're not just friends."

Blaine pulled away breathlessly, troublemaker grin on his face. "Me too, this would prompt an awful lot of explaining if we were doing this as just friends."

"Oh my God, shut up and kiss me, Anderson."


	15. Boys

"Hey, loverboys!" Nick called, accompanied by wolf-whistles as they walked out to the table, holding hands and blushing at the attention as it made it all the more obvious what they had been up to in the bathroom.

"Hey, what are you guys doing here?" Blaine laughed, pulling his blazer-clad buddies into bro hugs while Kurt watched Santana's expression contort in a way that could only be explained by her biting back the million gay jokes popping into her head.

"Well, I'm meeting my girlfriend's parents—" David started, before Blaine slid into the seat opposite him making a time-out motion.

"Wait, wait. I thought you and Wes were together."

Wes very helpfully spluttered next to him as David shook his head, shooting back an unconvincing, "Whaaat? No!"

Kurt squinted suspiciously at them as Blaine looked to Nick and Jeff for backup. With an exasperated sigh, Nick simply leaned over the seat from the booth behind him to exclaim, "Oh my _God_ , we all know!"

Jeff leaned over on the opposite side of Blaine while Wes and David ignored them. "They've been doing this for months. I seriously need to get some blackmail material on them."

"Well, _anyway,_ I'm meeting my girlfriend's parents and brought Wes along for moral support—"

"Moral support, huh?" Nick waggled his eyebrows.

"—and these two insisted on tagging along also," grumbled David.

"Blackmail material," Jeff supplied helpfully. Blaine laughed, shaking his head. _All_ of his friends were crazy.

"I'm so glad to finally meet you, Kurt! I've heard so much about you." Jeff extended his hand across the back of the seat to shake Kurt's, who raised an eyebrow.

"Jeff, we've... met."

He frowned and looked to Nick. "We have?"

Nick booped his nose. "At the party, babe. You were wayyy drunk." He turned back to Kurt. "Anyway, Blainey here never shuts up about you."

Seeing Blaine drop his head in embarrassment, Kurt grinned and shuffled closer. "Oh yeah?"

"Totally. 'I have the best boyfriend ever,' 'He's like an angel without wings'—so like, a human—'His eyes are like galaxies, I could get lost in them—'"

By this point, Blaine had nearly melted into the table in shame while all his Dalton friends laughed. Santana's eyes had lit up with a glint in them, bearing an uncanny resemblance to a cat happening upon a whole lot of defenseless prey.

"We're basically his diary," Wes jumped in, mischievous smile on his lips. "Apparently, you're just that amazing." He winked at Kurt.

"And apparently kissing you is like heaven," Nick finished. "But I'm gonna have to take his word on that since I've got a boyfriend of my own." 

Jeff grinned and kissed his cheek while David looked between the pair, trying not to laugh. Kurt was blushing and had very noticeable heart-eyes, although they were nearly filled with tears at how hard he was biting back a giggle. 

"I'm not telling you guys anything ever again, I hate you," Blaine groaned into the table.

"No, you love us!"

Santana leaned forward on the other side of the table, lips curled into a smirk and eyes wide with pure joy. "I changed my mind, you guys are totally cool. Do you have anything else on him?"

"Oh, loads—" Nick started, but their conversation was drowned out when Kurt tipped Blaine's head up. 

"You know, I have to disagree with what you said."

"What?" Blaine's eyebrows furrowed confusedly.

"About me being the best boyfriend ever. I think that title belongs to _you."_

Blaine opened his mouth to protest but was cut off by a quick, sweet kiss. 

"So, is it true?" Kurt asked, pulling away just a little to shoot him a knowing smile.

He laughed, shaking his head vigorously. "Kurt, I swear—"

_"Kissing me is like heaven?"_

Blaine buried his face in his hands as Kurt finally let out the giggle he'd been holding in for the past ten minutes. "Shut uppp."

"Okay, loverboy, we're gonna be late for our movie." Kurt grabbed his arm, leaving some money on the table to cover their half and waving to his friends. "We gotta go, bye guys!"

David and Wes waved despite being grilled by Santana. Jeff was invested in a conversation with Brittany on her theory on if all blondes were in one room together the world would explode, but pulled himself away to flash a grin and wave. Nick grinned, leaning into his boyfriend and made kissy noises as they walked away. 

With a good-natured smile on his face, Blaine clasped Kurt's hand in his and flipped Nick off with the other, looking over his shoulder to see him sticking his tongue out before they left the restaurant.

***

After sharing plenty of popcorn during Back to the Future, they walked out of the theatre with hands interlaced once again—a position they always fell comfortably into without thinking much of it. "Hey, thanks for this. I know it's just our first date, but I actually really like you," Kurt teased, stopping in front of the car. Blaine laughed and played along.

"Yeah, I wouldn't normally kiss on a first date, but you might just be an exception," he said, tugging him closer.

Kurt raised an eyebrow. "Oh?"

Blaine leaned in slowly to brush his lips against his, opening his eyes after a moment to see Kurt frowning at him.

"That was barely a kiss," he protested.

Blaine grinned. "What can I say, I'm a gentleman. Come on."

He grabbed the door for Kurt, who was mumbling, "That's not what you said in the bathroom," as he plopped into his seat and crossed his legs.

He simply smirked and got in the car to drive him home, looking over as they pulled into his driveway. "So, like, I wasn't totally focused in there or anything, but... I'm pretty sure in the movie, that mom was trying to bang her son."

Kurt just giggled and shook his head. "What a gentleman you are, Anderson."

They locked eyes for a moment before Kurt's smile faltered and he glanced at his feet. "Blaine... can I ask you a question?"

"Of course."

"Why haven't I ever been to your house?" He was looking up now, searching Blaine's face as he gave a grimace in response.

"It's my dad." He couldn't let himself meet Kurt's intent gaze.

"He doesn't know about us?" he said softly.

"He doesn't know about us, he doesn't know about me—or at least, he pretends he doesn't know about me," he scoffed. "I think, deep down, he's always known. He's just in denial... and I don't feel safe telling him. I'm sorry." He had pulled back now, putting a wall up automatically on the subject.

"Blaine, it's okay."

"I think part of the reason he took me out of Dalton was that he thought I would turn straight if I was surrounded by high school girls instead." His tone was disgusted now as he looked out the windshield, shaking his head bitterly. He paused and came back to reality, feeling Kurt's eyes on him. "I should go."

"Blaine—"

He kissed his cheek emotionlessly. "Thanks for tonight, it was fun. See you at school."

"Oh, um, okay." Kurt had barely gotten out of the car before Blaine was pulling out. He watched him go, reaching a hand up to touch his cheek where he had kissed him without a trace of the usual spark they had. He swallowed a feeling of guilt, not exactly sure what he had done wrong, but stuffed his hands in his pockets and shuffled inside in a bit of a deflated trance.

"Hey, kiddo, how'd your date go?" Burt gave him a kind smile as he came out of the kitchen, wiping his hand on a dishtowel. He had gotten used to waiting up for him after these days just because he liked to see his son happy and smiling, something he hadn't seen much since his wife died. However, this wasn't the sight he was greeted by.

Kurt had glanced up distractedly, brows knit together. "What? Oh, um, it was fine." 

Burt frowned as Kurt trudged up the stairs half-heartedly. _Fine_ was definitely not the norm after a day spent with Blaine. 

Although Kurt kept insisting he was fine at each query from his dad the next day, he couldn't shake how that short little scene in the car had been eating him up inside, especially since he didn't hear from Blaine all weekend. He was nearly dreading seeing his own boyfriend at school—a thought that made him all the more unsettled.

Monday morning came and went with no sign of Blaine. Kurt chewed on his pencil all through class. Lunch came and went. Kurt barely ate. Finally, the bell rang and Kurt was on his way out of school, splashing through the puddles under the light rain outside when a breathless Blaine ran up to him. "Kurt!"

He whirled around.

"Kurt, I—"

"Blaine, what the hell is wrong with you?"

A surprised expression came over Blaine's face. "I—um—"

"I haven't heard from you in three days! You had me worried sick! And you know what the worst part is? I'm not even mad at you. I blamed myself instead. You closed yourself off to the one person who cares most about you. You know, I can't relate to your situation, Blaine, but I'm always going to be here for you anyways. You know why I can't relate? Because I could _never_ come off as straight in a million years. You know how hard that is to deal with? My dad fucking knew when I was _two_. These assholes knew the _minute_ I stepped foot in this godforsaken school, and I got slushied every week, sometimes every day for it. And now you're dating me, and now you have to go through that too, and—and—" Kurt finally broke, tears spilling from his eyes as the words tumbled out of his mouth.

"Whoa, Kurt, slow down." Blaine's eyebrows were knit together in deep concern as he reached a hand out to brush Kurt's, but he barely moved, eyes fixed past him so he wouldn't have to meet his eyes. "Are you breaking up with me?"

Kurt's eyes immediately widened and he snapped his head back in his direction. "What? No! I—no—unless—" He ran a hand through his hair in distress and bit his lip, pausing. "I just... I really want to make sure you want to do this. I want you to be safe and I want you to be happy," he said quietly.

Blaine slipped a hand through his and tipped his head up, searching his eyes. "Kurt. You make me happier than anyone else in this whole broken world. You know that, right? Being your boyfriend is not a hardship in the _least."_

"But you get slushied for me," he mumbled, looking unsurely at their hands.

"And I'll take a million slushies for you, Kurt, because you're the best thing that's ever happened to me." He forced him to look him in his eyes, gaze intense as he looked him up and down. "... Okay?"

He nodded, eyes rimmed red with tears. "... Okay."

"Come here, babe." He reached his sleeve up to wipe his boyfriend's tears and pulled him into a warm hug, resting his head comfortably against his cheek. "I'm sorry," he said into his shoulder, voice muffled by the fabric of Kurt's jacket.

Kurt pulled back, wiping his nose. "I'm sorry too. But I'm glad we're in this together."

"All the way." Blaine's eyes shone as he tangled his fingers with his in a reassuringly tight grip. Kurt locked eyes with him as they walked and nodded, jaw set.

"Yeah. All the way."


	16. Author's Note

hi guys! im sorry i haven't updated in a while, i've been focused on school, other life stuff, + haven't been motivated enough to write any fanfiction recently. until i can get another update out, im unpublishing chapter sixteen so i dont leave the story hanging at an odd point. i will re-release it with chapter seventeen in the future, when i can! thank you for understanding. tpwk xx


End file.
